rriencTs,  Society  of 
Philadel-ohia  yearly  meetiii 


A  Report  of  the  Meeting: 
I      for  Sufferings,  Ador^ted 
;ij    by  the  Yearly  Meeting  of 
Friends,  held  in 
?hilac^el->hia. 


F9I7 


JAN  2  ^ 


REPORT 

IN  RELATION  TO  THE  FACTS  AND  CAUSES 

OF  THE 

DIVISION, 

.WHICH  OCCURRED  IX 

mW  ENGLAND  YEAKLY  MEETING, 

IN  THE  YEAR  1845. 


REPORT 


MEETING  EOR  SUFFERINGS, 


ADOPTED  BY  THE 


YEAELY  MEETING  OF  FRIENDS, 

HELD  IN  PHILADELPHIA, 
IN  RELATION  TO  THE  FACTS  AND  CAUSES 

OP  THE 

DIYISION, 

WHICH  OCCURRED  IN 

NEW  ENGLAND  YEARLY  MEETING, 

IN  THE  YEAR  1845. 


BOSTON: 

PRESS  OF  T.  R.  MARVIN,  24  CONGRESS  STREET. 

1  84  9. 


At  a  Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends,  held  in  Philadelphia,  by  adjourU' 
ments  from  the  \Qth  of  the  4ih  month  to  the  20th  of  the  same, 
inclusive,  1849. 

The  Meeting  for  Sufferings  having,  in  comformity  with  the  direc- 
tions of  this  Meeting,  by  its  Minute  of  last  year,  entered  into  an 
investigation  of  the  facts  and  causes  of  the  division  which  has  taken 
place  in  New  England  Yearly  Meeting,  and  prepared  a  report  thereon, 
it  was  now  produced  and  read  ;  and  after  a  time  of  discussion  and 
solid  deliberation,  it  was  concluded  that  it  would  be  best  to  adopt  it ; 
and  with  a  salutation  of  unfeigned  regard,  and  the  expression  of 
sincere  desire  that  under  the  heavenly  influences  of  Divine  Love,  all 
parties  may  be  favored  to  be  brought  into  true  fellowship  on  the  only 
sure  foundation,  so  that  we  may  be  enabled  to  unite  as  brethren  in  the 
promotion  of  the  blessed  cause  for  which  the  great  Head  of  the  church 
raised  us  up  as  a  people,  it  was  concluded  to  forward  to  each  body  a 
copy  of  the  document,  and  leave  it  with  them  for  their  solid  con- 
sideration. 

Extracted  from  the  Minutes. 

WILLIAM  EVANS, 

Clerk  to  the  Meeting  this  year. 


TO  THE  MEETING  EOR  SUFFERINGS. 

The  Committee  on  the  subject  of  the  two  Epistles  purport- 
ing to  be  from  the  Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends  of  New  England, 
referred  by  our  last  Yearly  Meeting  to  the  Meeting  for  Suffer- 
ings, Report,  That  they  have  made  a  full  and  patient  investiga- 
tion of  the  facts  and  circumstances  connected  with  the  division 
in  that  meeting.  From  the  Epistles  and  printed  documents 
published,  or  sanctioned  by  the  two  parties  respectively,  we 
have  compiled  the  following  Narrative,  embracing  the  facts  in 
which  both  substantially  agr^e  ;  to  this  are  added  a  Statement 


4 


of  the  views  taken  by  the  respective  parties  of  those  facts  and 
circumstances ;  and  the  conclusions  to  which  we  have  been 
led,  in  the  course  of  the  examination,  as  to  the  principles, 
which  appear  to  us  to  be  involved  in  these  transactions. 

NARRATIYE. 

In  the  year  1832,  a  minister,  liberated  by  New  England 
Yearly  Meeting,  and  then  on  a  religious  visit  to  Friends  in 
Great  Britain,  addressed  to  a  Friend  residing  in  Liverpool  a 
series  of  Letters  explanatory  of  the  doctrines  and  practices  of 
the  Society  of  Friends.  Upon  the  return  of  that  minister  to 
this  country,  the  Meeting  for  Sufferings  in  New  England, 
appointed  a  committee  to  treat  with  him  on  account  of  the 
publication  having  been  made  without  the  letters  undergoing 
inspection  by  any  body  of  the  Society  authorized  to  examine 
such  publications ;  but  the  Friend  objecting  to  the  right  of  the 
Meeting  for  Sufferings  thus  to  treat  with  him,  the  matter  was 
suffered  to  rest. 

In  1840,  Rhode  Island  Select  Quarterly  Meeting,  in  conse- 
quence of  defective  answers  to  some  of  the  Queries  from  two 
of  its  subordinate  meetings,  appointed  a  committee  to  labor 
for  the  restoration  and  preservation  of  harmony,  &c.,  which 
committee  brought  under  its  care  the  minister  above  alluded  to, 
on  account  of  an  alledged  improper  course  in  relation  to  divers 
Friends  whom  they  said  he  had  represented  as  unsound  in  re- 
ligious faith,  and  for  saying  many  things  tending  to  close  up 
the  way  of  a  minister  from  England  then  travelling  in  this 
country  on  a  religious  visit.  The  Friend  thus  brought  under 
care,  was  a  member  of  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting,  a 
branch  of  Rhode  Island  Quarterly  Meeting  ;  and  he  denied 
having  said  or  written  any  thing  which  could  be  properly  con- 
strued as  detraction,  and  alledged  in  justification  of  the  course 
he  had  pursued,  and  for  which  he  was  thus  found  fault  with, 
that  certain  parts  of  the  published  works  of  the  minister  from 
England  were  repugnant  to  the  faith  of  our  Religious  Society, 
and  he  had  therefore  believed  it  incumbent  upon  him,  and  in 
accordance  with  the  advice  given  in  the  discipline  of  his 
Yearly  Meeting,  to  point  out  several  of  the  sentiments  con- 


5 


tained  in  those  works  which  He  believed  to  be  unsound,  and  to 
use  his  influence  to  put  Friends  upon  their  guard  against  coun- 
tenancing those  unsound  doctrines  or  sanctioning  their  recep- 
tion within  our  Religious  Society  ;  and  that  it  was  his  having 
so  done  that  had  been  construed  into  detraction. 

After  repeated  interviews  had  between  the  committee  of  the 
Select  (Quarterly  Meeting  and  this  Friend,  in  which  he  con- 
tended for  the  propriety  of  the  course  he  had  taken,  he  wrote 
a  letter  to  one  of  the  committee  intended  to  be  explanatory  of 
that  course,  and  to  show  that  the  correctness  of  the  charges 
preferred  against  him  depended  altogether  upon  whether  his 
assertion  respecting  the  unsoundness  of  certain  parts  of  the 
works  of  the  author  alluded  to  was  an  error.  This  letter  the 
committee  alledged  to  contain  unjust  insinuations  against  them, 
and  they  objected  to  the  premises  taken  in  it  and  the  conclu- 
sions drawn,  as  being  untrue.  The  Select  (Quarterly  Meeting's 
committee  now  placed  the  case  in  the  hands  of  a  committee  of 
the  Yearly  Meeting  which  had  been  appointed  from  year  to 
year  to  extend  a  general  care  on  its  behalf,  and  to  assist  and 
advise  such  meetings  and  members  "as  circumstances  may 
require  and  way  open  for."  This  committee  of  the  Yearly 
Meeting  treated  with  the  Friend  upon  the  charges  before  pre- 
ferred, and  also  on  account  of  the  contents  of  the  letter  last 
alluded  to.  He  informed  the  committee  of  the  Yearly  Meeting 
that  he  had  no  intention  by  any  thing  said  in  that  letter  to 
charge  the  committee  of  the  Select  (Quarterly  Meeting  with 
holding  unsound  doctrines,  as  they  appeared  to  have  supposed. 
The  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  thereupon  prepared  a  written 
acknowledgment  to  be  signed  by  him,  and  required  him  to 
make  concessions  to  them,  both  of  which  he  declined  doing. 
Repeated  interviews  took  place  between  members  of  the 
Yearly  Meeting's  committee  and  the  Friend  ;  he  requesting 
them,  as  he  had  previously  asked  the  Select  Quarterly  Meet- 
ing's committee,  to  give  him  in  writing,  a  distinct  specification 
of  the  causes  of  uneasiness  with  him,  with  which  request  both 
committees  declined  complying. 

Before  the  committee  of  the  Yearly  Meeting,  the  Friend 
maintained  the  same  ground  which  he  had  taken  before  the 
committee  of  the  Select  Quarterly  Meeting,  viz.  that  his  oppo- 
sition was  solely  to  the  unsound  doctrines  contained  in  the 
1* 


writings  of  the  Friend  from  England  ;  while  this  committee 
denied  this  to  be  the  point  at  issue,  or  those  writings  to  be  in- 
volved in  the  case  ;  but  simply  whether  he  could  with  impunity 
violate  the  discipline,  and  order  of  our  Society;  alledging,  that 
while  the  Friend  from  England  was  among  them,  he  would  be 
held  answerable  for  whatever  he  should  advance,  but  that  it 
would  be  a  violation  of  our  order  to  take  any  action  for  acts 
committed  or  sentiments  advanced  prior  to  the  dates  of  his 
certificates. 

The  committee  failing  to  induce  the  Friend  to  make  such 
concessions  as  they  required,  brought  to  the  Monthly  Meeting 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  in  the  4th  month,  1842,  a  written 
charge  against  him,  and  attended  at  the  meeting  to  advise  the 
course  to  be  taken  in  the  case.  The  following  is  the  substance 
of  the  charge,  viz. 

That  this  Friend  had  circulated  an  anonymous  pamphlet, 
which  impeached  the  character  of  our  religious  Society,  and  in 
which  some  of  its  important  doctrines  are  reproachfully  held 
up  to  view  ;  and  in  which  is  printed  what  purports  to  be  an 
account  of  the  proceedings  of  London  Select  Yearly  Meeting, 
with  the  sentiments  of  divers  Friends,  when  the  subject  of 
liberating  a  minister  to  visit  this  country  was  before  that  meet- 
ing ;  apparently  to  induce  the  belief  that  the  concern  did  not 
receive  the  unity  of  the  meeting,  and  that  the  clerk  did  not  act 
in  conformity  with  the  true  sense  and  judgment  of  the  meeting 
in  signing  the  certificate ; — that  while  the  minister  from  Eng- 
land was  in  this  country,  this  Friend  had  circulated  divers 
letters  intended  to  show  that  that  minister  was  not  in  unity 
with  his  friends  at  home,  and  designed  to  close  his  way  in  the 
minds  of  Friends  here  ; — that  he  had  indulged  in  a  spirit  of 
detraction,  by  which  the  religious  character  of  divers  Friends 
in  New  England  and  in  other  Yearly  Meetings  had  been  much 
misrepresented  ; — that  he  had  made  divers  assertions  tending 
to  induce  dissatisfaction  among  Friends,  and  with  the  proceed- 
ings of  New  England  Yearly  Meeting  in  various  particulars, 
assertions  calculated  to  produce  division  therein,  and  also  to 
disturb  the  unity  of  diflferent  Yearly  Meetings,  and  to  alienate 
the  feelings  of  the  members  from  each  other; — that  he  had 
written  a  letter  to  one  of  the  Select  (Quarterly  Meeting's  com- 
mittee in  which  he  made  unjust  insinuations,  and  preferred 


7 


charges  against  them  which  they  deny  that  he  not  having 
made  satisfaction  for  his  deviations  the  committee  recommended 
his  case  to  the  immediate  notice  of  South  Kingston  Monthly 
Meeting. 

Upon  this  charge  being  brought  into  the  Monthly  Meeting, 
the  Friend  charged  remonstrated  against  its  being  put  on  re- 
cord, though  he  expressed  his  desire  to  have  it  investigated. 
By  the  advice  of  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  it  was  placed 
upon  the  minutes,  and  a  committee  of  four  appointed  to  attend 
to  the  case.  The  charge  had  not  been  submitted  to  the  over- 
seers of  the  meeting,  nor  introduced  to  the  notice  of  the  Pre- 
parative Meeting. 

At  the  next  Monthly  Meeting,  it  being  the  usual  time  to  ap- 
point a  Clerk,  and  the  representatives  from  the  Preparative 
Meetings,  who  usually  proposed  a  Friend  for  Clerk,  not  having 
agreed  upon  one  to  bring  forward,  a  Friend  was  named  by  a 
member  in  the  meeting,  and  appointed  by  the  meeting  to  that 
station,  and  an  addition  of  five  was  made  to  the  committee 
upon  the  case  introduced  into  the  meeting  the  month  before. 
The  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  was  not  present  at  this 
Monthly  Meeting. 

In  the  interval  between  this  Monthly  Meeting  and  that 
which  occurred  in  the  6th  month,  the  Yearly  Meeting's  com- 
mittee advised  the  Friend  who  had  given  up  his  place  as  clerk, 
when  the  other  Friend  was  appointed  to  that  station  by  the 
meeting,  to  keep  possession  of  the  Books  and  Papers  belonging 
to  the  Monthly  Meeting,  and  he  in  consequence  refused  to  give 
them  up  to  a  committee  appointed  by  the  meeting  to  obtain 
them. 

At  the  Monthly  Meeting  in  the  6th  month  the  Yearly  Meet- 
ing's committee  again  attended,  and  advised  the  meeting,  in 
order,  as  they  said,  to  promote  harmony  among  its  members,  to 
displace  its  present  clerk,  and  to  reinstate  the  Friend  who  had 
been  removed  the  month  previous ;  but  the  meeting  not  being 
prepared  to  take  that  course,  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee 
continued  to  participate  in  transacting  the  business  of  the  meet- 
ing. In  the  7th  month,  six  of  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee 
met  the  committee  of  nine  appointed  by  the  Monthly  Meeting 
to  attend  to  the  case  brought  into  the  meeting  by  the  Yearly 
Meeting's  committee.    The  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  laid 


8 


before  this  committee  of  the  Monthly  Meeting  their  proof  for 
establishing  the  correctness  of  their  charge  ;  all  which  was  re- 
ceived by  the  committee  of  the  Monthly  Meeting.  Whereupon 
the  Friend  charged,  proceeded,  in  the  coarse  of  his  defence,  to 
exhibit  those  parts  of  the  published  works  of  the  minister  from 
England,  which  he  had  spoken  of  as  unsound,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  which  alledged  unsoundness  he  said  he  had  consid- 
ered himself  justified  in  speaking  and  acting  as  he  had  done. 
To  this  mode  of  defence  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  ob- 
jected, and  upon  the  committee  of  the  Monthly  Meeting  de- 
ciding that  the  Friend  might  introduce  before  them  such  evi- 
dence and  documents  upon  these  subjects  as  should  appear  to 
be  essential  to  his  defence,  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee 
stated  to  them  in  writing,  that  as  the  committee  had  decided 
not  to  confine  the  investigation  to  the  charges  submitted  to  the 
Monthly  Meeting,  but  to  allow  doctrines  to  be  introduced  in 
justification,  they  declined  remaining  with  the  committee. 
The  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  then  withdrew  without  hear- 
ing the  defence  of  the  Friend  as  made  before  the  committee  of 
the  Monthly  Meeting. 

The  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  represented  to  Rhode 
Island  Quarterly  Meeting  in  the  8th  month,  that  from  a  want 
of  love  and  unity,  and  a  spirit  of  insubordination  manifest  in 
the  management  of  the  concerns  of  the  Society,  South  Kings- 
ton Monthly  Meeting  was  not  in  a  suitable  state  to  conduct  the 
affairs  of  the  church  to  the  honor  of  Truth  :  whereupon  that 
Quarterly  Meeting  appointed  a  committee  to  act  in  its  behalf 
in  rendering  advice  and  assistance  to  that  meeting  and  to 
Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting.  This  committee  of  Rhode  Island 
Quarterly  Meeting  and  the  committee  of  the  Yearly  Meeting 
attended  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  in  the  8th  month. 
Two  reports  from  the  committee  appointed  in  the  case  intro- 
duced into  that  meeting  by  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee,  ' 
were  presented  ;  one  signed  by  seven,  and  the  other  by  two  of 
the  committee.  The  meeting  for  some  time  declined  allowing 
that  signed  by  the  two  to  be  read,  but  at  the  instance  of  the 
Yearly  Meeting's  committee  it  finally  consented  to  hear  both 
reports.  The  Yearly  and  Quarterly  Meeting's  committees  ad- 
vised against  the  reception  of  that  signed  by  the  seven,  stating 
that  thereby  the  Friend  would  be  restored  without  making  any 


9 


concessions.  The  meeting  expressed  its  willingness  to  hear 
and  consider  the  advice  given,  but  it  claimed  the  right  in  such 
a  case  as  this,  to  come  to  a  judgment  for  itself,  otherwise  what 
was  given  was  not  advice,  but  a  mandate ;  and  after  a  full  con- 
sideration of  the  subject,  and  hearing  all  the  two  committees 
had  to  say,  it  decided  to  accept  the  report  signed  by  the  seven. 

This  report,  adopted  by  the  meeting,  states  that  upon  a  full 
investigation  of  the  case,  it  was  the  judgment  of  the  committee 
that  the  charges  against  the  Friend  had  not  been  sustained,  but 
that  his  defence  is  sufficient  to  exonerate  him  from  the  same  ; 
that  the  complaint  originated  on  account  of  his  labors,  under  an 
apprehension  of  religious  duty,  and  in  conformity  with  the  dis- 
cipline, against  the  introduction  into  our  Society  of  defective 
principles  and  doctrines,  and  for  the  preservation  of  those  an- 
cient testimonies  of  Truth  committed  to  us  as  a  people.  The 
case  was  thus  terminated  by  the  Monthly  Meeting,  and  no 
further  action  taken  therein. 

Two  months  after  this,  viz.,  in  the  10th  month,  the  Quarter- 
ly Meeting's  committee  presented  to  the  Monthly  Meeting  ad- 
vice in  writing  to  this  effect : — Believing  the  manner  in  which 
the  present  clerk  of  the  meeting  was  appointed,  was  irregular 
and  disorderly,  and  that  the  addition  made  to  the  committee 
(in  the  case  heretofore  narrated)  was  contrary  to  the  general 
usage  of  our  Society ;  and  apprehending  from  their  relationship 
to  the  individual  under  care,  that  they  were  selected  with  a 
view  to  prevent  the  impartial  exercise  of  the  Discipline,  they 
therefore  advised  the  meeting  to  remove  its  present  clerk,  and 
reappoint  the  old  one ;  to  dismiss  the  committee  which  it  had 
appointed  to  treat  with  the  latter  on  account  of  his  retaining 
the  records  of  the  meeting,  and  likewise  that  the  decision  in 
the  case  of  the  Friend  (above  narrated)  as  entered  upon  its 
minutes  in  the  8th  month,  be  now  set  aside,  and  be  made  void 
and  of  no  effect. 

The  Monthly  Meeting  recorded  upon  its  minutes  this  advice 
of  the  (Quarterly  Meeting's  committee,  spent  some  time  in  de- 
liberating upon  it,  and  referred  it  one  month  for  further  con- 
sideration. 

At  Rhode  Island  Quarterly  Meeting  in  the  11th  month,  its 
committee  reported  the  advice  which  it  had  given  to  South 
Kingston  Monthly  Meeting,  and  that  it  had  not  met  on  the  part 


to 


of  many  with  a  kind  reception  ;  that  their  written  advice  had 
been  read,  and  its  consideration  referred  to  the  next  meeting  ; 
that  they  did  not  consider  the  Monthly  Meeting  in  a  suitable 
state  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  church  in  accordance  with 
our  Christian  Disciphne ;  and  it  was  their  judgment  that  South 
Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  be  dissolved,  and  the  members  at- 
tached to  Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting.  The  Quarterly  Meet- 
ing accepted  the  report  of  its  committee  ;  and  a  minute  was 
made  dissolving  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting,  joining  its 
members  to  Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting,  and  directing  the 
books  and  papers  of  the  former  meeting  to  be  delivered  to 
such  person  as  Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting  should  appoint 
to  receive  them  ;  and  also  declaring  the  proceedings  of 
South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  with  its  former  clerk,  for 
having  retained  its  records,  to  be  null  and  void.  It  likewise 
declared  the  minute  of  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting 
which  added  five  members  to  the  committee  to  deal  with  [the 
Friend  heretofore  alluded  to]  and  also  the  decision  come  to  in 
the  8th  month  in  relation  to  that  Friend,  and  entered  upon  the 
minutes,  to  be  null  and  void  :  and  it  directed  all  other  unfinish- 
ed business  to  be  transferred  to  Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting  ; 
and  committees  and  others  under  appointment  by  South 
Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  to  report  to  Greenwich  Monthly 
Meeting. 

*  The  (Quarterly  Meeting's  committee  attended  South  Kings- 
ton Monthly  Meeting  in  the  11th  month,  and  there  read  the 
minute  of  the  (Quarterly  Meeting  ;  whereupon  the  Monthly 
Meeting  concluded  to  appeal  to  the  Yearly  Meeting.  Notwith- 
standing this  appeal,  referring  the  whole  matter  to  the  decision 
of  the  Yearly  Meeting,  and  notwithstanding  the  case  of  the 
Friend  against  whom  the  charge  had  been  brought  by  the 
Yearly  Meeting's  committee  had  been  decided  by  South 
Kingston  Monthly  Meeting,  and  the  committee  appointed  in 
the  case  consequently  dismissed  .;  Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting, 
in  the  first  month  1843,  directed  that  part  of  that  committee, 
which  had  been  first  appointed,  to  make  a  report  to  it  (Green- 
wich Monthly  Meeting),  and  at  that  Monthly  Meeting  held  1st 
month  30th,  two  of  the  four  Friends  first  appointed  on  the 
case,  presented  a  report,  in  which  they  state,  that  they  had 
heard  the  evidence  presented  by  the  Yearly  Meeting's  com- 


11 


mittee  in  support  of  the  charges  brought  by  it  against  the 
member  of  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting,  and  it  was  in 
their  judgment  sufficient  to  substantiate  those  charges;  which 
charges  (they  say)  having  relation  altogether  to  his  departure 
from  Discipline  and  good  order,  it  was  evident  to  us,  that  his 
defence  ought  to  be  predicated  on  that  ground  alone ;  and 
whereas  the  other  part  of  the  committee  was  willing  to  allow 
him  to  make  his  defence,  by  leaving  this,  the  only  legitimate 
ground,  and  go  into  a  justification  of  his  conduct  by  allusion 
to  doctrines,  which,  in  our  view  was  entirely  foreign  to  the 
subject  matter  under  consideration,  we  therefore  felt  ourselves 
.  bound  to  dissent  from  such  a  course  altogether,  and  it  is  our 
judgment  that  he  is  not  in  a  situation  and  state  of  mind  to  be 
continued  a  member  of  our  Society.  The  part  of  the  com- 
mittee which  made  this  report,  had  had  no  opportunity  of  again 
consulting  with  their  colleagues,  who  declined  meeting  again 
with  them,  nor  had  they  had  any  other  interview  with  the 
Friend  in  whose  case  they  reported,  than  that  had  with  him  in 
the  7th  month,  1842,  when  the  whole  committee  was  present. 
This  report  was  received  by  the  Monthly  Meeting,  and  the 
Friend  thereupon  disowned  by  Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting. 

The  individual  thus  disowned  appealed  to  the  Quarterly 
Meeting,  which  confirmed  the  judgment  of  the  Monthly  Meet- 
ing, and  upon  an  appeal  to  the  Yearly  Meeting  it  confirmed 
the  judgment  of  the  (Quarterly  Meeting. 

The  judgment  of  Rhode- Island  (Quarterly  Meeting  from 
which  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  had  appealed  was 
confirmed  by  the  Yearly  Meeting  upon  the  report  of  thirteen 
out  of  a  committee  of  twenty-one  :  six  presented  a  counter 
report,  and  two  declined  signing  either. 

In  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting,  another  branch  of  Rhode 
Island  (Quarterly  Meeting,  a  difference  of  sentiment  existed 
among  its  members,  and  for  a  considerable  time  there  had  been 
no  new  appointment  of  clerks  and  overseers.  Committees  had 
been  from  time  to  time  nominated  to  propose  persons  for  those 
stations,  but  their  reports,  when  presented,  not  being  united  with 
by  the  meeting,  the  clerk  and  overseers  who  had  long  served 
the  meeting  were  continued  in  their  respective  stations.  In 
1844,  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee,  which  had  been  con- 
tinued from  year  to  year,  and  the  (Quarterly  Meeting's  commit- 


tee  which  appears  also  to  have  been  continued,  requested  the 
two  committees  of  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting  which  stood 
appointed  upon  clerk  and  overseers  to  meet  with  them  ;  and 
upon  their  so  doing,  the  committees  of  the  Yearly  and  Quar- 
terly Meetings  united  with  a  part  of  each  committee  of  the 
Monthly  Meeting,  viz.  with  three  of  the  committee  of  seven 
on  clerk,  in  recommending  a  Friend  for  clerk  and  another  for 
assistant ;  and  with  two  of  the  committee  of  seven  on  over- 
seers in  recommending  certain  Friends  for  overseers.  At  the 
Monthly  Meeting  when  these  reports  were  presented,  the 
Yearly  Meeting's  committee  likewise  presented  a  written  com- 
munication advising  the  meeting  to  appoint  the  Friends  pro- 
posed to  the  respective  stations  for  which  they  were  nominated. 
After  considerable  discussion  upon  the  propriety  of  adopting 
the  reports  thus  brought  forward,  and  much  diversity  of  senti- 
ment being  apparent,  the  clerk  made  a  minute  referring  both 
subjects  to  the  consideration  of  the  next  Monthly  Meeting,  and 
under  the  care  of  the  same  committees. 

At  Rhode  Island  (Quarterly  Meeting  which  occurred  soon  ' 
after  the  Monthly  Meeting  just  noticed,  the  committee  to  assist 
and  advise  its  Monthly  Meetings  was  released,  and  another  ap- 
pointed to  visit  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting  and  assist  in  its  due 
organization. 

At  the  next  Monthly  Meeting  of  Swanzey,  after  the  Friend 
who  had  long  acted  as  clerk  had  taken  his  seat  at  the  table,  but 
before  the  Monthly  Meeting  was' opened  by  the  usual  minute, 
and  before  any  minute  from  the  (Quarterly  Meeting  had  been 
read,  a  proposition  was  made  that  the  Friend  nominated  at  the 
previous  meeting  by  part  of  the  committee  on  clerks,  and  also 
then  recommended  by  the  Yearly  Meeting^s  committee  to  be 
appointed  to  that  station,  should  now  act  as  clerk  of  the 
meeting.  This  proposition  was  united  with  by  part  of  the 
meeting,  and  was  opposed  by  another  part,  when  the  individual 
thus  selected  proceeded  to  make  a  minute  opening  the  meeting, 
and  received  the  reports  from  the  Preparative  Meetings.  At 
the  same  time  the  Friend  who  had  long  served  the  meeting 
as  clerk,  at  the  request  of  several  Friends  likewise  opened  the 
meeting  by  the  usual  minute,  and  proceeded  to  call  up  the 
business  in  the  regular  order  as  recorded  on  the  minutes,  those 
who  united  with  his  so  doing  engaging  in  the  transaction  of 


13 


the  business  thus  brought  before  the  meeting.  In  the  mean 
time  the  Friend  who  had  just  commenced  acting  as  clerk  read 
the  minute  of  the  Quarterly  Meeting  appointing  its  committee, 
and  then  read  a  minute  of  adjournment,  whereupon  several 
members  of  the  meeting,  together  with  the  Yearly  and  Q.uar- 
terly  Meeting's  committees,  withdrew,  leaving  the  other  part  of 
the  meeting  engaged  in  disposing  of  the  business  on  the  min- 
utes. Thus  a  division  took  place  in  Swanzey  Monthly 
Meeting. 

At  Rhode  Island  (Quarterly  Meeting  in  the  11th  month, 
1844,  two  reports,  each  purporting  to  come  from  Swanzey 
Monthly  Meeting,  were  presented ;  one  signed  by  the  old  clerk 
of  that  meeting,  the  other  by  the  individual  who  commenced 
acting  as  clerk  at  the  time  and  in  the  manner  just  narrated. 
The  latter  report  was  received  by  the  clerk  of  the  (Quarterly 
Meeting,  and  acknowledged  as  the  report  from  the  true  Monthly 
Meeting  by  him  and  by  those  who  united  with  him  in  so 
doing  ;  while  the  other,  signed  by  the  Friend  who  had  long 
acted  as  clerk,  was  rejected  by  them.  Whereupon  those  who 
disapproved  of  this  course,  remained  together  after  a  minute  of 
adjournment  had  been  read,  and  appointing  a  clerk,  received 
the  report  from  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting  signed  by  the  old 
clerk,  and  proceeded  to  transact  the  business  of  a  Quarterly 
Meeting.  A  committee  to  visit  the  subordinate  meetings  was 
appointed.  Thus  a  division  took  place  in  Rhode  Island  Quar- 
terly Meeting,  which  soon  extended  to  all  its  subordinate 
branches. 

After  this  Quarterly  Meeting  occurred,  and  before  the  time 
of  holding  New  England  Yearly  Meeting,  the  Meeting  for 
Sufferings  in  New  England  issued  communications  to  the 
Meetings  for  Sufferings  of  other  Yearly  Meetings,  and  to  the 
subordinate  meetings  of  New  England  Yearly  Meeting  ;  in 
which  they  characterize  those  who  had  held  the  Quarterly 
Meeting  which  received  the  report  signed  by  the  old  clerk  of 
Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting,  as  seceders  from  the  Society,  and 
disaffected  to  its  order  and  discipline  ;  whereupon  the  body  thus 
denominated  Seceders,  put  forth  an  Address  to  Friends,  in 
which  they  deny  this  charge,  and  give  their  reasons  for  the 
course  pursued  by  them,  and  state  the  causes  which,  in  their 
view,  had  led  to  the  separation. 
2 


14 


At  the  first  sitting  of  New  England  Yearly  Meeting  in  1845, 
the  names  of  the  representatives  appointed  by  each  body  claim- 
ing to  be  Rhode  Island  Quarterly  Meeting  were  read  and 
minuted.  A  proposition  was  then  made  to  refer  the  claims  of 
the  two  bodies  to  the  representatives  appointed  by  the  other 
Quarterly  Meetings,  for  them  to  report  to  the  Yearly  Meeting, 
which,  in  their  judgment,  was  the  true  Rhode  Island  Quarterly 
Meeting.  The  representatives  from  that  meeting,  which  as 
Rhode  Island  Quarterly  Meeting  had  received  and  acknowl- 
edged the  report  from  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting  signed  by 
the  old  Clerk,  objected  to  the  proposed  reference,  on  the 
grounds  that  several  of  the  representatives  appointed  by  the 
other  Quarters  were  members  of  the  Yearly  Meeting's  com- 
mittee, and  consequently  had  prejudged  the  case  ;  and  because 
(as  they  stated)  unfair  and  proscriptive  measures  had  been  re- 
sorted to  in  the  appointment  of  representatives  in  some  of  the 
Quarters  with  special  reference  to  the  points  in  controversy; 
and  they  proposed  that  the  whole  subject  be  opened  in  and 
be  decided  by  the  Yearly  Meeting  at  large.  The  appointment 
of  representatives  with  any  view  to  their  judging  in  this  case, 
was  denied,  and  after  some  time  the  clerk  made  a  minute  re- 
ferring the  case  as  proposed,  A  proposition  was  then  made  to 
suspend  the  rule  of  Discipline  requiring  the  representatives  to 
meet  at  the  close  of  the  meeting  on  second  day  morning,  to 
agree  on  a  clerk  for  the  year  and  report  the  same  to  the  ad- 
journment. This  was  objected  to  on  the  part  of  some,  and 
united  with  by  many  others,  and  a  minute  was  made  that  the 
clerks  then  under  appointment  should  continue  to  serve  the 
meeting  until  the  question  respecting  Rhode  Island  Quarterly 
Meeting  was  settled.  Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  meeting 
in  the 'afternoon,  a  representative  from  Sandwich  Quarterly 
Meeting,  informed  the  Yearly  Meeting  that  a  portion  of  the 
representatives  had  met  together,  and  concluded  to  report  two 
Friends,  whom  he  named,  one  for  clerk,  and  the  other  for  as- 
sistant. The  appointment  of  these  Friends  was  united  with 
by  many,  and  opposed  by  a  larger  number  ;  and  the  Friends 
who  had  heretofore  acted  as  clerk  and  assistant,  continuing  in 
their  seats  at  the  table,  the  two  Friends  now  proposed  for  those 
stations,  took  their  seats  at  another  table,  and  a  minute  of  their 
appointment  was  made  and  read  by  the  one  nominated  as 


15 


clerk.  The  Friend  who  had  heretofore  acted  as  clerk,  called 
upon  the  representatives  from  all  the  Quarterly  Meetings  ex- 
cept Rhode  Island,  to  state  to  the  meeting  whether  they  had 
met  in  consultation  in  regard  to  the  nomination  of  the  Friends 
now  proposed  for  clerk  and  assistant.  All  present  but  four 
stated  that  they  had  not  been  consulted  and  now  dissented 
from  the  appointment.  The  old  clerk  now  requested  those 
who  had  been  thus  nominated  as  clerk  and  assistant,  and  also 
the  Friends  who  united  with  them,  to  desist,  and  protested 
against  their  proceedings.  Each  party  transacted  business  as 
New  England  Yearly  Meeting,  and  adjourned ;  those  who 
acted  with  the  nev/  clerk  until  ten  o'clock,  and  the  other  until 
nine  o'clock  next  morning.  Thus  a  division  took  place  in 
New  England  Yearly  Meeting. 

The  representatives  to  whom  was  referred  the  claims  of  the 
two  bodies  claiming  to  be  Rhode  Island  (Quarterly  Meeting, 
reported  on  third  day  morning  to  that  body  which  had  met  in 
the  meeting-house  at  nine  o'clock,  that  in  their  judgment  the 
meeting  which  had  refused  to  receive  the  report  signed  by  the 
old  clerk  of  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting,  ought  to  be  acknowl- 
edged by  the  Yearly  Meeting  as  the  true  Rhode  Island 
Quarterly  Meeting  ;  which  report  was  united  with. 

The  other  body  which  met  at  ten  o'clock,  finding  the  meet- 
ing-house occupied  when  they  assembled,  proceeded  to  open 
and  to  hold  their  meeting  in  the  yard,  and  after  applying  in 
the  name  of  New  England  Yearly  Meeting,  to  those  sitting  in 
the  house,  for  the  use  of  the  clerk's  table  and  for  the  transfer 
to  them  of  the  books  and  papers  belonging  to  the  Yearly  Meet- 
ing, which  was  refused,  they  adjourned,  to  meet  in  another 
house.  Both  bodies  have  continued  to  claim  the  character  of 
New  England  Yearly  Meeting. 


The  light  in  which  the  two  bodies  claiming  to  be  New 
England  Yearly  Meeting  view  the  facts  and  circumstances  here 
narrated,  and  the  causes  which  have  produced  the  present  state 
of  things  within  the  limits  of  that  Yearly  Meeting,  is  widely 
different.    Each  body  asserts  that  it  is  sound  in  the  faith  of 


16 


Friends,  and  attached  to  the  Discipline  and  order  of  our  Re- 
ligious Society. 

The  larger  body  says — that  they  apprehend  the  canse  of 
the  disunity  and  schism,  is  to  be  found  in  a  spirit  of  disaffection 
and  desire  for  individual  liberty,  that  is  not  willing  to  submit 
to  that  necessary  subordination  recognized  in  our  Discipline  of 
inferior  to  superior  meetings,  and  of  each  member  to  the  body, 
which  has  ever  been  found  essential  to  the  welfare  and  preser- 
vation of  our  Religious  Society  ;  and  they  sanction  and  ap- 
prove the  course  pursued  by  the  committees  of  the  Yearly  and 
(Quarterly  Meetings,  and  the  proceedings  of  those  meetings  re- 
spectively, as  related  in  the  foregoing  account. 

They  maintain — that  the  Friend  placed  under  dealing  in 
South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting,  by  the  Yearly  Meeting's 
committee,  was  justly  liable  to  the  charges  brought  against 
him  by  that  committee  ; — that  much  labor  had  been  bestowed 
upon  him  ;  that  his  attempted  justification  upon  the  ground  of 
the  unsoundness  of  some  of  the  writings  of  the  Friend  from 
England  was  untenable ;  that  it  was  not  right,  or  according  to 
order,  to  take  exception  to  acts  committed  or  sentiments  ad- 
vanced by  that  Friend  prior  to  the  date  of  his  certificates  ;  that 
doctrines  were  not  at  issue  ;  and  that  as  further  labor  by  the 
Yearly  Meeting's  committee  would  have  been  unavailing,  that 
committee  took  the  proper  course  in  prosecuting  the  case. 

They  assert — that  the  Discipline  of  New  England  provides 
no  specific  mode  for  bringing  the  case  of  an  offender  before  a 
Monthly  Meeting  ;  and  although  the  general  practice  is  for 
complaints  to  come  from  the  overseers,  through  the  Preparative 
Meeting,  yet  that  the  support  of  good  order  and  discipline 
have  in  divers  instances  rendered  a  departure  from  this  course 
necessary. 

They  alledge — that  those  who  attempted  to  control  the 
proceedings  of  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting,  were  not 
qualified  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  church,  that  the  meeting 
was  bound  to  take  the  advice  given  by  the  Yearly  Meeting's 
committee,  and  that  in  not  doing  so  it  rendered  itself  liable  to 
be  reported  to  its  (Quarterly  Meeting  as  insubordinate. 

They  state — that  the  reception  by  the  Monthly  Meeting  of 
the  report  of  seven  of  the  committee  in  the  case  of  the  Friend 
placed  under  dealing  in  it  by  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee, 


17 


restored  him  to  membership  contrary  to  the  expressed  sense 
and  judgment  of  divers  well-concerned  and  consistent  members 
of  that  meeting. 

They  assert — that  the  Monthly  Meeting  was  bound  by  the 
Discipline,  to  comply,  at  the  time  when  it  was  given,  with  the 
advice  presented  to  it  by  a  portion  of  the  Quarterly  Meeting's 
committee,  and  then,  if  not  satisfied  therewith,  to  appeal  there- 
from. 

They  state — that  the  Friend,  after  being  disowned  by 
Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting,  appealed  to  the  Quarterly  Meet- 
ing, which  confirmed  the  judgment  of  the  Monthly  Meeting  ; 
and  that  this  decision  of  the  Quarterly  Meeting,  was,  upon  an 
appeal  to  it,  confirmed  in  the  Yearly  Meeting  by  a  very  united 
voice. 

They  maintain — that  the  spirit  of  insubordination  which 
existed  in  New  England  Yearly  Meeting  was  manifested  in 
Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting,  where,  they  say,  there  had  long 
been  a  want  of  that  love  and  unity  which  are  essential  to  the 
right  conducting  of  the  affairs  of  Truth.  That  the  Yearly  and 
Quarterly  Meeting's  committees  had  bestowed  much  labor  to 
remedy  the  difficulties  existing  in  that  meeting,  and  to  produce 
that  organization  which  would  enable  it  to  carry  into  effect  the 
Discipline ;  the  administration  of  which,  they  say^  had  been 
seriously  affected. 

They  assert — that  when  the  names  of  the  Friends,  who,  by 
the  advice  of  the  Yearly  and  Quarterly  Meeting's  committees, 
were  reported  to  that  Monthly  Meeting  for  clerk  and  overseers, 
were  so  proposed  in  the  meeting,  the  reports  were  fully  united 
with  by  the  large  body  of  the  members  of  the  meeting,  and 
that  the  clerk  refused  to  record  the  clearly  expressed  sense  of 
the  meeting,  though  advised  to  do  so  by  the  Yearly  Meeting's 
committee  ;  and  they  state  that  at  the  next  Monthly  Meeting 
he  still  persisted  to  hold  the  station  of  clerk,  notwithstanding 
the  meeting  again,  with  the  exception  of  those  persons  who 
had  manifested  their  opposition  in  the  last  meeting,  united  in 
the  appointment  as  clerk  of  the  Friend  who  had  been  selected 
at  the  previous  meeting.  That  notwithstanding  the  meeting 
had  thus  appointed  this  Friend  to  be  clerk,  and  he  was  acting 
in  that  capacity,  yet  the  other  continued  to  sit  at  the  table,  to 
form  and  read  minutes,  and  that  to  prevent  confusion,  Friends 
2* 


18 


adjourned.  They  also  state,  that  the  persons  who  sustained 
the  former  clerk,  in  his  decision  against  the  judgment  of  the 
meeting,  were  disaffected  towards  the  Society,  as  were  those 
within  the  other  Monthly  Meetings  of  Rhode  Island  Quarterly 
Meeting,  who  united  in  forming  what  they  denominated 
Monthly  Meetings. 

They  assert — that  when  in  New  England  Yearly  Meeting, 
in  1845,  the  proposition  was  made  that  the  representatives 
from  the  other  Quarterly  Meetings  should  constitute  a  com- 
mittee, which  should  take  the  subject  into  consideration,  and 
report  to  that  meeting  which  of  the  two  bodies  claiming  to  be 
Rhode  Island  Quarterly  Meeting,  was  in  their  judgment  the 
true  Quarterly  Meeting,  in  unity  with  and  entitled  to  send  rep- 
resentatives to  the  Yearly  Meeting,  it  was  united  with  by  the 
meeting,  and  no  objection  was  made  to  the  case  being  opened 
in  the  meeting,  in  its  collective  capacity,  should  that  subse- 
quently be  thought  best.  That  the  charge  of  unfairness  in  the 
appointment  of  representatives  in  the  Quarterly  Meetings  was 
denied,  no  Friend  having  had  any  expectation  of  such  a  refer- 
ence when  the  representatives  were  appointed.  That  the 
Yearly  Meeting  concluded  that  no  other  subject  could  with 
propriety  be  entered  on  by  it,  until  the  case  of  Rhode  Island 
Quarter  was  determined ;  and  it  decided  that  the  clerks  then 
under  appointment  should  continue  to  serve  the  meeting  until 
the  question  was  decided. 

They  alledge — that  when,  in  the  afternoon  sitting,  a  repre- 
sentative proposed  the  name  of  the  Friend  for  clerk,  and  of 
another  for  assistant,  the  course  proposed  was,  by  a  very 
general  expression  of  the  meeting,  disapproved,  and  forty-one  of 
forty-five  representatives  informed  the  meeting  that  they  had 
not  been  consulted  in  relation  to  the  nomination,  and  entirely 
dissented  from  it.  That  the  clerk  of  the  Yearly  Meeting,  by 
its  fully  expressed  direction,  solemnly  protested  against  the 
persons  thus  nominated  acting,  against  their  proceedings  and 
the  proceedings  of  their  adherents. 

They  assert — that  the  accusation  brought  against  them  by 
those  who  have  withdrawn  from  them  of  having  departed  from 
the  doctrines  and  testimonies  borne  by  our  early  predecessors 
in  the  Truth,  is  untrue.  Friends  of  this  Yearly  Meeting,  they 
say,  have  not  so  departed  ;  but  on  the  contrary,  the  ancient 


19 


doctrines  held  by  our  Society,  in  all  their  fullness  and  in  all 
their  excellence,  are  unabatedly  dear  to  them. 


The  other  body  claiming  to  be  New  England  Yearly  Meet- 
ing, say,  that  the  origin  of  all  the  difficulty  within  the  limits  of 
that  Yearly  Meeting,  has  been  the  attempt  to  uphold  and  de- 
fend certain  unsound  doctrines,  published  by  a  minister  of  our 
Society  in  England  ;  and  a  manifest  determination  on  the  part 
of  many  of  the  leading  members  of  New  England  Yearly  Me,et- 
ing,  under  the  profession  of  a  great  concern  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  its  order,  to  make  use  of  their  station  and  influence 
to  deprive  of  their  dearest  rights  and  privileges,  not  only  indi- 
viduals, but  Meetings  which  have  endeavored  to  withstand 
these  innovations.  In  proof  of  this,  and  of  the  violation  of  the 
order  and  discipline  of  the  Society,  on  the  part  of  those  who 
have,  as  they  declare,  separated  from  it,  they  state,  among 
other  things, — That  the  letters  written  by  the  minister  from  New 
England,  while  on  a  visit  in  Great  Britain,  were  published  by 
the  Friend  to  whom  they  were  addressed  ;  that  after  they  were 
so  published,  the  minister  who  wrote  them  was  furnished  by 
the  London  Morning  Meeting  with  a  full  returning  certificate 
of  unity  ;  and  that  the  true  cause  of  the  dissatisfaction  express- 
ed by  the  Meeting  for  Sufferings,  with  the  Friend,  on  account 
of  their  publication,  was,  because  those  letters  exposed  the  un- 
sound doctrines  then  making  their  appearance  in  England. 

They  alledge — that  when  the  Friend  from  England,  the 
author  of  the  works  containing  the  unsound  sentiments  alluded 
to,  was  in  New  England,  this  minister  had  a  private  interview 
with  him,  in  which  he  informed  him  of  the  uneasiness  of  many 
Friends  on  account  of  sentiments  contained  in  his  works  ;  but 
that  not  obtaining  any  satisfaction,  he  believed  it  to  be  his  re- 
ligious duty  to  caution  Friends  against  receiving  or  imbibing 
those  unsound  doctrines ;  and  that  this  was  the  ground  of  all 
the  complaints  preferred  against  him.  That  the  course  pur- 
sued by  him  was  in  accordance  with  the  advice  given  in  the 
Discipline  of  New  England  Yearly  Meeting. 

They  assert— that  at  the  time  when  Rhode  Island  Select 
Quarterly  Meeting  appointed  its  committee  on  account  of  de- 


90 


fective  answers  from  some  of  its  subordinate  meetings,  those 
defective  answers  did  not  come  from  the  meeting  of  which  this 
Friend  was  a  member ;  and  that  that  committee  went  aside 
from  the  business  for  which  it  was  appointed,  and  beyond  the 
authority  with  which  the  Discipline  clothes  such  committees, 
when  it  undertook  to  deal  with  him  as  narrated  ;  and  that  the 
reason  why  this  Friend  did  not  comply  with  the  advice  of 
those  committees  which  treated  with  him,  was,  because  the 
stand  that  he  had  taken  was  against  unsound  doctrines  and  un- 
just proceedings  in  defence  of  those  doctrines  ;  and  that  he  re- 
quested their  objections  to  him  to  be  specified  in  writing,  be- 
cause the  alledged  objections  had  been  repeatedly  changed. 

They  maintain — that  the  manner  in  which  the  charge  pre- 
ferred against  this  Friend  by  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee, 
was  brought  into  the  Monthly  Meeting,  without  first  informing 
him  of  its  purport,  and  that  it  was  to  be  brought*  there  ;  and 
also  without  submitting  it  to  the  overseers  of  the  meeting,  or 
to  the  Preparative  Meeting,  was  contrary  to  the  usage  and 
order  of  our  Religious  Society,  and  a  direct  violation  of  the 
order  of  proceeding  plainly  laid  down  in  the  Discipline,  in  re- 
lation to  a  charge  of  detraction.  That  the  rights  of  South 
Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  were  violated  by  the  Yearly  Meet- 
ing's committee  compelling  it  to  act  immediately  on  the  case, 
by  threatening  that  unless  it  complied  with  their  advice  and 
took  the  charge  on  record  at  once,  they  would  carry  a  com- 
plaint against  it  to  the  Gluarterly  Meeting ;  and  they  say,  that 
when  it  was  proposed  to  delay  the  case  one  month,  (on  account 
of  its  being  an  important  one,  and  the  meeting  small  by  reason 
of  the  day  being  wet,  and  the  place  where  it  was  then  held 
remote  from  the  greatest  number  of  its  members,)  the  com- 
mittee insisted  that  the  meeting  should  proceed,  and  said  that 
an  addition  could  be  made  to  the  committee  now  appointed, 
should  it  afterwards  be  desired. 

They  alledge — that  when  at  the  next  Monthly  Meeting  an 
addition  was  made  to  the  committee  appointed  in  this  case,  it 
was  the  clearly  expressed  judgment  of  the  meeting  so  to  do, 
and  was  in  accordance  with  the  frequent  usage  of  the  Society, 
and  also  with  the  suggestion  of  the  Yearly  Meeting's  com- 
mittee itself,  made  at  the  previous  meeting;  and  that  the  Yearly 
Meeting's  committee  acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  com- 


21 


mittee  as  thus  constituted,  by  taking  part  in  the  examination 
of  the  case  submitted  to  it,  and  laying  before  it  their  evidence 
of  the  charges  brought  by  them  against  the  member  of  the 
Monthly  Meeting;  though  they  (the  Yearly  Meeting's  commit- 
tee) refused  to  allow  any  others  than  the  committee  of  the 
Monthly  Meeting  to  be  present.  That  when  the  committee  of 
the  Monthly  Meeting  was  investigating  this  case,  the  Yearly 
Meeting's  committee,  after  producing  all  the  evidence  they 
thought  proper  in  support  of  the  charges  brought  by  them, 
claimed  it  to  be  their  province  to  join  the  committee  of  the 
Monthly  Meeting  in  judging  the  case  ;  to  dictate  the  matter 
which  should  be  introduced  by  the  Friend  in  his  defence,  and 
the  course  which  the  committee  of  the  Monthly  Meeting  should 
pursue  in  investigating  the  case.  And  they  say,  that  the 
Yearly  Meeting's  committee  had  gone  into  the  subject  of  doc- 
trines in  proof  of  one  of  their  charges,  but  that  when  the  com- 
mittee of  the  Monthly  Meeting  decided  to  allow  the  Friend 
accused  (who  stated  that  it  was  on  account  of  his  objecting  to 
certain  doctrines,  that  he  was  complained  of)  to  introduce  such 
evidence  in  relation  to  those  doctrines,  as  should  appear  essen- 
tially to  relate  to  the  same,  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee 
refused  to  stay  and  hear  what  was  produced,  but  immediately 
left,  and  consequently  did  not  hear  the  Friend's  vindication  of 
the  course  he  had  pursued,  as  made  before  the  committee  of 
the  Monthly  Meeting. 

They  state — that  after  patiently  investigating  the  whole 
case,  seven  of  the  committee  were  of  the  judgment  that  the 
charges  brought  were  not  sustained.  That  the  only  evidence 
adduced  of  the  Friend  having  circulated  the  pamphlet  mentioned 
in  the  charge,  was  his  having  sent  it  to  a  Friend  with  an  in- 
junction not  to  spread  it.  That  the  letters  alluded  to  in  the 
charge  as  having  been  written  by  him,  and  tending  to  close  up 
the  way  of  the  minister  from  England,  which  were  produced 
by  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee,  had  little  or  no  allusion  to 
that  Friend's  personal  character,  but  rested  upon  his  doctrines — 
as  did  also  those  letters  which  he  had  received.  That  no 
proof  was  adduced  of  the  Friend  having  made  assertions  of 
the  character  stated  in  the  charge.  That  when  the  Friend's 
appeal  came  before  the  Quarterly  Meeting,  and  he  claimed  the 
right  given  by  the  DiscipUne  of  New  England  to  those  charged 


2S 


with  detraction  to  object  to  a  certain  number  named  on  the 
committee,  it  was  asserted  by  a  member  of  the  Yearly  Meet- 
ing's committee,  that  the  complaint  against  the  Friend  was  not 
for  detraction  and  he  was  thereupon  deprived  of  that  right, 
unless  the  Monthly  Meeting  should  also  be  allowed  to  object 
to  an  equal  number ;  for  which  no  provision  is  made  in  the 
Discipline  of  New  England. 

They  assert — that  when  the  report,  signed  by  seven  of  the 
committee  in  this  case,  was  given  in,  there  was  a  very  full  ex- 
pression by  the  members  of  the  Monthly  Meeting  in  favor  of 
receiving  it ;  that  it  was  fully  united  with,  and  at  its  final 
adoption  only  one  member  of  the  meeting  spoke  decidedly 
against  it. 

They  alledge  moreover — that  the  advice  of  the  Yearly  and 
Quarterly  Meeting's  committees  not  to  receive  this  report, 
(which  advice,  they  say,  the  committee  claimed  to  be  as  bind- 
ing upon  the  Monthly  Meeting  as  the  Discipline,)  was  not  com- 
plied with  for  the  following  reasons.  Because  that  the  Yearly 
Meeting's  committee  had  itself  brought  the  charges  against  the 
member  of  the  Monthly  Meeting,  had  labored  to  sustain  them, 
and  had  refused  to  hear  the  vindication  made  by  the  Friend 
charged,  upon  which  the  report  of  the  committee  of  the 
Monthly  Meeting  was  founded  ;  and  that  the  committee  of  the 
Quarterly  Meeting,  which  had  been  appointed  but  a  short  time 
before,  was  altogether  uninformed  of  the  merits  of  the  case  ; 
had  never  heard  the  defence  made,  and  therefore  had  not  the 
requisite  understanding  of  the  facts  upon  which  the  committee 
of  the  Monthly  Meeting  acted.  And  moreover,  that  the  Monthly 
Meeting  believed  that  the  Discipline  makes  Monthly  Meetings 
the  judges  of  all  complaints  against  their  own  members,  until 
appealed  from  to  a  superior  meeting.  They  admit,  that  the 
meeting  should  hear  and  weigh  the  advice  given  in  such  a  case, 
but  it  being  the  only  body  authorized  by  the  Yearly  Meeting 
to  deal  with  and  disown  members,  it  should  be  left  to  act  con- 
scientiously, so  long  as  it  remains  sound  in  our  doctrines,  and 
faithful  to  our  Discipline.  But,  they  say,  if  the  advice  of  a 
Yearly  or  a  Quarterly  Meeting's  committee  must  be  binding  in 
such  a  case,  the  right  of  appeal  can  afford  no  protection  ;  for 
an  individual  appealing  from  the  judgment  of  a  Monthly 
Meeting  acting  under  the  control  of  such  a  committee,  would 


« 


23 


appeal  to  the  same  body  at  whose  bidding  he  was  disowned  iti 
the  first  instance. 

They  maintain — that  the  statements  made  in  the  written 
advice  given  by  the  Quarterly  Meeting's  committee  to  South 
Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  are  aUogether  incorrect.  That  the 
Gluarterly  Meeting's  committee  did  not  attend  the  Monthly 
Meeting  at  which  the  clerk  was  appointed,  and  consequently 
their  knowledge  of  its  proceedings  was  only  through  reports 
abroad,  which  reports,  they  say,  must  have  been  of  a  very  de- 
ceptive and  partial  character.  That  the  practice  of  naming,  as 
well  as  of  appointing  the  clerk  immediately  by  the  meeting, 
had  been  the  ancient  practice  and  usage  of  South  Kingston 
Monthly  Meeting,  from  its  organization  until  within  a  few  yearsj 
and  that  the  time  for  which  the  former  clerk  had  been  appointed 
had  expired.  That  the  Friend  appointed  to  the  station  was 
placed  there  by  the  expression  of  three-fourths  of  the  members 
of  the  meeting  present,  and  without  any  expressed  objection  to 
the  individual  by  any  one.  That  the  Friend  had  likewise 
been  recognized  as  clerk  of  the  meeting  by  both  the  Yearly 
and  Quarterly  Meeting's  committee. 

They  state — that  the  objection  to  the  addition  made  to  the 
committee  appointed  in  the  4th  month,  1842,  in  the  case  of 
the  Friend  against  whom  the  charges  were  brought  by  the 
Yearly  Meeting's  committee,  as  being  contrary  to  the  usage  of 
Society,  is  also  incorrect ;  it  being  the  frequent  usage  in  the 
Society  to  make  such  additions  ;  and  that  moreover  the  Yearly 
Meeting's  committee,  when  the  Monthly  Meeting  w^as  urging 
the  propriety  of  deferring  the  appointment  of  a  committee  at  the 
time  the  case  was  brought  forward,  itself  suggested  that  the  meet- 
ing might  make  such  addition  at  a  future  time.  That  the  objec- 
tion to  some  of  the  committee  on  the  score  of  relationship,  is 
unfounded  and  unjust.  That  two  of  those  who  were  first  ap- 
pointed when  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  was  present, 
were  relatives,  but  none  on  the  committee  were  nearly  related 
to  the  Friend  accused,  and  that  there  is  no  Discipline  which  ex- 
cludes relatives  from  such  services,  it  being  discretionary  with 
Monthly  Meetings  to  appoint  such  of  their  members  as  are 
thought  most  suitable  for  the  service. 

They  alledge — that  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  fully 
acknowledged  the  whole  committee,  and  no  complaint  was 


24 


heard  of  any  part  of  it,  until  after  their  report  was  made.  That 
it  is  a  dangerous  assumption  of  power,  for  a  (Quarterly  Meet- 
ing's committee  to  require  a  Monthly  Meeting  immediately  to 
remove  its  clerk,  they  selecting  a  successor  without  allowing 
the  meeting  a  voice  in  the  matter.  That  the  advice  to  set 
aside  and  make  void  and  of  no  effect  the  decision  recorded  on 
the  minutes  of  the  Monthly  Meeting,  in  relation  to  the  case  of 
one  of  its  members,  was  unprecedented  ;  and  that  the  Monthly 
Meeting  could  not  see  that  the  committee  had  any  right  to  re- 
verse that  decision,  affecting,  as  it  would,  the  rights  of  an  indi- 
vidual whose  case  had  once  been  decided  by  the  proper  tribu- 
nal, and  he  acquitted. 

They  say — that  it  was  because  South  Kingston  Monthly 
Meeting  did  not  disown  its  member,  whose  offence  consisted  in 
his  faithful  testimony  against  those  things  which  were  calcula- 
ted to  lay  waste  the  true  bond  of  unity  among  our  members, 
and  not  on  account  of  any  disorderly  proceedings  therein,  that 
it  was  dissolved  ;  and  that  its  insubordination  consisted  in  its 
standing  for  those  rights  which  the  DiscipHne  gives  to  it  as  a 
Monthly  Meeting  in  the  appointment  of  its  officers,  inasmuch 
as  when  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  reported  it  to  the 
(Quarterly  Meeting  as  insubordinate,  the  case  of  the  Friend 
complained  of  by  that  committee  was  still  in  the  hands  of  the 
committee  of  the  Monthly  Meeting. 

They  maintain — that  the  manner  in  which  that  Monthly 
Meeting  was  laid  down,  was  a  violation  of  the  Discipline  of 
New  England  Yearly  Meeting,  which  provides  that  the  Quar- 
terly Meeting  shall  first  come  to  a  decision  in  the  case,  and 
communicate  it  in  writing  to  the  Monthly  Meeting,  and  if  the 
Monthly  Meeting  is  not  satisfied  therewith,  it  may  appeal  to 
the  Yearly  Meeting  ;  but  if  it  refuses  to  take  the  advice  of  the 
(Quarterly  Meeting,  and  also  refuses  to  appeal,  then  the  Quar- 
terly Meeting  may  either  dissolve  the  Monthly  Meeting  or  bring 
the  case  before  the  Yearly  Meeting.  And  it  also  provides  that 
after  a  Monthly  Meeting  is  dissolved,  if  its  members,  or  any 
part  of  them,  appeal  to  the  Yearly  Meeting,  the  members  of 
the  Monthly  Meeting  are  not  to  be  annexed  to  another  Monthly 
Meeting  until  the  appeal  is  decided.  Whereas,  they  say,  South 
Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  never  received  the  judgment  of  the 
Quarterly  Meeting,  until  it  received  the  minute  dissolving  it ; 


and  that  its  members  were  annexed  to  Greenwich  Monthly- 
Meeting,  before  it  was  known  to  the  Quarterly  Meeting 
whether  they  would  appeal  or  not.  That  the  writing  which 
the  meeting  did  receive,  was  the  advice  of  four  out  of  a  com- 
mittee of  fifteen,  appointed  three  months  before,  the  other 
members  of  the  committee  not  having  been  consulted,  and 
moreover,  this  advice  was  not  refused  by  the  meeting. 

They  alledge — that  inasmuch  as  South  Kingston  Monthly. 
Meeting  appealed  to  the  Yearly  Meeting  from  the  decision  of 
the  Quarterly  Meeting  respecting  the  course  pursued  by  it  in 
the  case  of  the  Friend  placed  under  dealing  by  the  Yearly 
Meeting's  committee,  it  was  altogether  irregular  and  out  of 
order  for  Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting,  which  was  officially  in- 
formed thereof,  to  take  any  action  in  this  case  pending  the  ap- 
peal. That  this  case  had  been  decided  in  South  Kingston 
Monthly  Meeting  and  the  business  finished  ;  and  that  after  a 
case  of  alledged  offence  has  been  duly  tried  and  decided  in  one 
Monthly  Meeting,  and  the  accused  acquitted,  it  is  contrary  to 
Discipline  for  another  Monthly  Meeting  to  attempt  to  try  the 
same  case.  Nor  is  there  any  discipline  which  authorizes  a 
Quarterly  Meeting  to  place  a  member  of  a  Monthly  Meeting 
under  dealing. 

Notwithstanding  this,  they  state — that  Greenwich  Monthly 
Meeting  directed  the  committee  originally  appointed  in  the 
case  to  report  to  it ;  and  upon  the  report  of  two  of  its  taembers 
who  had  had  no  other  interview  with  the  Friend  than  that  in 
which  the  whole  committee  of  nine  was  present,  proceeded  to 
make  a  minute  of  his  disownment ;  and  that  all  who  spoke  in 
favor  thereof,  except  two,  were  members  of  either  the  Yearly 
or  Quarterly  Meeting's  committee,  while  several  members 
expressed  their  disunity  therewith. 

They  maintain — that  a  diversity  of  sentiment  in  regard  to 
the  doctrines  published  in  the  works  of  the  minister  from 
England,  broke  the  unity  in  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting,  and 
gave  rise  to  the  difficulties  in  relation  to  the  appointment  of 
clerk  and  overseers  in  that  meeting,  and  that  the  Yearly  and 
Quarterly  Meeting's  committees  always  took  part  with  those 
who  advocated  and  defended  the  author  of  those  unsound  doc- 
trines, and  would  agree  to  no  arrangement  which  did  not  ex- 
3 


26 


elude  from  official  stations  the  Friends  who  objected  to  those 
doctrines. 

They  alledge — that  the  report  upon  clerk  and  assistant  pre- 
sented to  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting  in  the  7th  month,  1844, 
and  which  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  urged  the  meeting 
to  accept,  was  signed  by  but  three  of  a  committee  of  seven  ; 
the  other  members  of  the  committee  not  having  received  infor- 
mation where  it  was  prepared  and  signed — that  the  report  upon 
overseers  was  signed  by  but  two  of  a  committee  of  seven — and 
that  one  of  those  named  as  overseer,  had  been  added  by  the 
Yearly  Meeting's  committee,  and  was  objectionable  to  a  large 
number  of  the  members  of  the  meeting,  on  several  accounts. 
That  at  this  time  the  Monthly  Meeting  appointed  representa- 
tives to  the  (Quarterly  Meeting,  by  whom  were  sent  answers  to 
the  Queries,  and  other  necessary  accounts  signed  by  the  clerk, 
and  that  the  Quarterly  Meeting  received  them  so  signed  as 
from  a  duly  organized  Monthly  Meeting. 

They  assert — that  at  the  next  Monthly  Meeting,  when  the 
public  meeting  had  concluded,  the  clerk  took  his  usual  seat  at 
the  table  in  order  to  proceed  with  the  business  of  the  meeting, 
when  a  Friend^  not  a  member  of  the  meeting,  after  narrating 
the  action  of  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee,  and  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  last  Monthly  Meeting,  informed  the  meeting 
that  the  Quarterly  Meeting  had  dismissed  its  former  committee, 
and  appointed  another  for  the  due  organization  of  the  Monthly 
Meeting  ;  but  he  exhibited  no  minute  from  the  Quarterly 
Meeting.  That  this  individual  then  proposed  that  the  Friend 
who  acted  as  clerk  should  leave  the  table,  and  that  another 
whom  he  named  should  take  his  place.  That  this  proposition 
was  united  with  by  several  others,  who,  they  say,  were  also 
not  members  of  the  meeting ;  and  who,  though  repeatedly  re- 
quested to  present  to  the  meeting  any  credentials  clothing  them 
with  authority  for  such  a  course,  did  not  do  so  ;  and  who 
therefore  had  no  right  thus  to  meddle  in  the  business ;  and 
that  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  having,  at  the  previous 
Monthly  Meeting,  withdrawn  their  minute  of  appointment,  its 
members  who  were  present,  were  there  in  their  individual 
capacity. 

They  maintain — that  although  the  proposition  was  united 
^with  by  a  number  of  the  members  of  the  meeting,  yet  quite  as 


27 


large  a  number  objected  to  it,  and  that  the-  Monthly  Meeting 
had  not  been  opened  by  the  usual  rninute.  That  the  whole 
proceeding  was  a  violation  of  the  order  and  usage  of  our  So- 
ciety, and  that  those  who  took  part  in  it,  and  commenced  act- 
ing as  a  Monthly  Meeting,  separated  from  Swanzey  Monthly 
Meeting  and  set  up  a  spurious  meeting.  That  Swanzey 
Monthly  Meeting  was  opened  in  the  regular  manner  by  the 
clerk  reading  the  usual  minute,  transacted  such  business  as 
came  regularly  before  it,  and  then  adjourned. 

They  alledge — that  when  the  clerk  and  prominent  mem- 
bers of  Rhode  Island  (Quarterly  Meeting,  many  of  whom  bad 
been  active  in  the  disorderly  proceedings  at  Swanzey,  refused 
to  receive  or  acknowledge  the  representatives  and  report  from 
the  ancient  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting,  and  did  receive  and 
acknowledge  those  from  the  spurious  meeting,  they  thereby  im- 
plicated themselves  in  the  separation,  and  a  necessity  was  laid 
upon  those  who  would  remain  faithful  to  the  precious  princi- 
ples of  our  Religious  Society,  to  endeavor  to  sustain  the  Gluar- 
terly  Meeting,  and  its  subordinate  branches,  upon  their  ancient 
foundation  ;  and  that  hence  they  were  constrained  to  remain 
after  the  others  had  adjourned  and  hold  the  (Quarterly  Meeting. 

They  assert — that  the  charge  brought  against  those  Friends 
'  who  sustained  Rhode  Island  Quarterly  Meeting,  of  having 
long  manifested  a  want  of  unity  with  Friends,  is  unfounded ; 
their  disunity  being  solely  with  the  unsound  doctrines  of  the 
Friend  from  England,  and  with  the  measures  taken  to  defend 
them.  That  those  who  have  thus  sorrowfully  manifested  a 
disposition  to  lower  the  standard  of  our  Christian  profession, 
have  not  hesitated  to  lay  waste  the  good  order  and  discipline 
of  the  church,  and  to  disregard  the  rights  of  individuals  and  of 
meetings,  whenever  the  testimonies  of  the  one,  or  the  conclu- 
sions of  the  other  have  stood  in  their  way  ;  and  that  they  have 
repeatedly  rejected  from  service  worthy  and  substantial  Friends, 
by  refusing  to  take  their  names  when  offered  in  all  their  meet- 
ings for  discipline,  from  the  Preparative  to  the  Yearly  Meeting; 
for  no  other  reason  than  because  they  have  declared  them  out 
of  unity  with  the  body. 

They  also  maintain — that  the  Meeting  for  Sufferings  in 
issuing  the  circular  in  which  it  testified  against  those  meetings 
and  individuals  which,  they  say,  had  maintained  their  integrity 


28 


and  allegiance  to  the  discipline  and  usages,  the  doctrines  and 
testimonies  of  our  Religious  Society  ;  interfered  with,  and  de- 
cided upon  matters  of  discipline,  not  determined  by  the  Yearly 
Meeting  ;  and  thus  violated  the  Discipline  of  the  Society. 

They  further  alledge — that  the  reasons  why  the  repre- 
sentatives from  the  true  Rhode  Island  Quarterly  Meeting  ob- 
jected to  referring  to  the  representatives  from  the  other  (Quar- 
ters, the  investigation  and  decision  of  the  question,  which  were 
the  true  representatives,  as  proposed  in  the  Yearly  Meeting, 
were  that  many  of  those  representatives  were  members  of  the 
Yearly  Meeting's  committee,  and  were  implicated  in  the  sepa- 
ration ;  that  in  one  Quarterly  Meeting,  all  who  were  suspected 
of  being  opposed  to  the  previous  proceedings  of  the  Yearly 
Meeting  in  relation  to  this  matter,  were  excluded  from  appoint- 
ment as  representatives— that  the  members  of  one  Monthly 
Meeting  belonging  to  that  Quarter  were  wholly  excluded  both 
from  being  appointed  and  from  nominating  others  as  represen- 
tatives— and  that  at  another  Quarterly  Meeting,  members  of 
the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  attended  and  advised  against 
the  appointment  of  such  as  had  not  unity  with  their  proceed- 
ings. 

They  state — that  it  was  the  judgment  of  Friends,  after  the 
Yearly  Meeting  had  suspended  the  rule  of  discipline  which  re- 
quires the  representatives  to  meet  at  the  close  of  the  sitting  on 
second  day  morning,  and  agree  upon  a  clerk  for  the  year,  that 
in  order  to  sustain  the  Yearly  Meeting  in  conformity  with  its 
long  established  discipline,  and  upon  its  original  ground,  with 
the  ancient  doctrines  and  testimonies  of  our  Religious  Society 
unimpaired,  it  was  indispensable  that  the  representatives  should 
meet  and  agree  upon,  and  propose  a  clerk  to  the  next  sitting, 
as  by  Discipline  and  former  usage  is  required. 

Finally  they  maintain — that  those  who  united  with  the 
clerk  then  proposed,  and  transacted  business  with  him  at  the 
table,  were  the  true  Yearly  Meeting  of  New  England,  and  con- 
tinue so  to  be ;  while  those  who  opposed  them  separated  from 
it. 


Such  is  a  concise  statement  of  the  facts  contained  in  the 
Documents  which  have  been  submitted  to  us,  and  of  the  light 
in  which  the  two  parties  respectively  view  them.  Two  sets 
of  Epistles  have  been  presented  to  the  Yearly  Meeting,  both 
from  bodies  which  assert  that  they  maintain,  in  their  original 
purity,  the  doctrines,  testimonies  and  discipline  of  the  Society. 
The  subject  is  therefore  placed  before  ns  for  consideration 
without  any  agency  of  ours,  and  common  Justice  and  the  cause 
of  Truth  demand  that  the  claims  of  each  should  be  impartially 
examined. 

Although  each  Yearly  Meeting  is  the  judge  of  its  own  dis- 
cipline, there  is  an  understood  and  implied  necessity  of  con- 
forming in  its  decisions  to  principles  of  religious  duty  and 
Christian  doctrine,  of  civil  liberty  and  constitutional  right  com- 
mon to  us  all,  and  always  acknowledged  and  held  as  inviolable 
by  us.  For  we  are  one  people  the  world  over.  The  right  of 
membership  in  one  Yearly  Meeting,  is  a  right  of  membership 
— when  duly  conveyed  by  certificate — in  all.  A  member,  let 
him  belong  where  he  may,  has  the  right  of  attending  meetings 
for  transacting  the  ordinary  affairs  of  the  Society,  wherever 
they  are  held.  When,  therefore,  as  in  the  present  case,  two 
bodies  come  before  a  Yearly  Meeting,  both  under  the  same 
title,  and  each  claiming  to  be  the  co-ordinate  branch  of  the 
Society  bearing  that  name,  it  becomes  its  duty,  under  the 
guidance  of  Divine  Wisdom,  to  inquire  into  the  circumstances 
of  the  case,  so  that  it  may  not  withhold  from  those  to  whom 
they  belong,  the  precious  rights  and  privileges  which  member- 
ship in  our  Society  confers. 

From  the  statements  put  forth  by  both  bodies  it  appears 
clear  to  us,  that  important  principles  and  usages  of  the  Society, 
as  well  as  private  rights,  have  been  disregarded  in  the  progress 
of  the  transactions  therein  recorded.  Some  of  the  more  promi- 
nent points  in  which  this  has  been  done,  appear  to  us  to  be 
the  following,  viz  : 

First.  In  the  attempt  to  procure  the  disownment  of  a  minis- 
ter in  the  Society  upon  an  accusation  of  detraction  and  upon 
3* 


30 


pther  charges,  based  upon  or  growing  out  of  his  endeavors,  in 
accordance  with  what  he  beheved  to  be  his  rehgious  duty,  to 
prevent  the  reception  and  spread  of  sentiments  contained  in 
printed  doctrinal  works,  written  and  pubhshed  by  a  Friend 
from  England  then  in  this  country ;  which  sentiments,  in 
common  with  many  other  Friends,  he  beheved  to  be  opposed 
to  the  acknowledged  doctrines  of  the  Society. 

Every  man  has  the  natural  and  religious  right  to  express  his 
honest  opinions,  in  a  proper  spirit  and  manner  upon  any  pub- 
lished sentiment,  which  he  approves  or  disapproves.  If  he 
spreads  opinions  in  opposition  to  the  principles  of  the  Religious 
Society  to  which  he  belongs,  he  is  liable  to  excommunication 
for  a  departure  from  its  faith.  But  to  attempt  to  bring  a  man 
under  censure  for  defending  the  Society  against  error,  by  warn- 
ing the  members  against  the  unsoundness  of  certain  published 
works,  not  only  violates  a  plain  unquestionable  right,  but 
would  be  censuring  him  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  his  reli- 
gious duty  as  a  watchman,  and  giving  support  to  opinions 
which  as  a  body  the  Society  entirefy  disapproves.  The  object 
of  our  Christian  compact,  is  to  bear  testimony  to  the  truth  and 
against  error,  to  comfort  and  strengthen  one  another-  in  a  faith- 
ful adherence  to  the  truth,  through  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  that  by  sound  doctrine  and  a  consistent  example  we 
may  convince  gainsayers,  and  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  may 
prevail  over  darkness  and  error  in  the  earth.  In  a  work  on 
church  government,  written  by  Robert  Barclay,  and  owned  by 
the  Society  every  where,  these  views  are  held  forth.    He  says, 

We  being  gathered  together  into  the  belief  of  certain  princi- 
ples and  doctrines,  without  any  constraint  or  worldly  respect, 
but  by  the  mere  force  of  truth  upon  our  understandings  and  its 
power  and  influence  upon  our  hearts  ;  these  principles  and 
doctrines  and  the  practices  necessarily  depending  upon  them, 
are  as  it  were  the  terms  that  have  drawn  us  together,  and  the 
bond  by  which  we  became  centered  into  one  body  and  fellow- 
ship, and  distinguished  from  others.  Now  if  any  one  or  more 
so  engaged  with  us,  should  arise  to  teach  any  doctrine  or  doc- 
trines contrary  to  those  which  were  the  ground  of  our  being 
one,  who  can  deny  but  the  body  hath  power  in  such  a  case  to 
declare,  this  is  not  according  to"  the  truth  we  profess,  and  we 


31 


therefore  pronounce  such  and  such  doctrines  to  be  wrong,  with 
which  we  can  have  no  unity  nor  any  more  spiritual  fellowship 
with  those  that  hold  them,  and  so  cut  themselves  off  from 
being  members,  by  dissolving  tJie  very  bond  by  which  we  were 
linked  together." 

This  is  a  plain  declaration  of  the  powers  of  the  Society,  and 
of  the  reasonableness  of  exercising  these  powers,  and  that  a 
departure  in  doctrine  breaks  the  bond  which  had  united  the 
party  to  the  Society.  After  expressing  the  same  sentiments  on 
the  next  page,  Barclay  contends  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  the 
members,  to  protest  against  every  departure  from  its  faith. 
He  says,  "  Have  not  such  as  stand,  good  right  to  cast  such  an 
one  out  from  among  them,  and  to  pronounce  positively,  this  is 
contrary  to  the  truth  we  profess  and  own,  and  ought  therefore 
to  be  rejected  and  not  received,  nor  yet  he  that  asserts  it,  as  one 
of  us.  And  is  not  this  obligatory  upon  all  the  members^  seeing 
all  are  concerned  in  the  like  care,  as  to  themselves,  to  hold  the 
right  and  shut  out  the  wrong  ?  I  cannot  tell  if  any  man  of 
reason  can  well  deny  this."  Again  he  says,  "  In  short,  if  we 
must  preserve  and  keep  those  that  are  come  to  own  the  truth, 
by  the  same  means  they  were  gathered  and  brought  into  it,  we 
must  not  cease  to  be  plain  with  them,  and  tell  them  when  they 
are  wrong,  and  by  sound  doctrine  both  exhort  and  convince 
gainsayers." 

If  unsound  doctrines  are  not  to  be  testified  against,  and  the 
flock  .warned  of  their  pernicous  influence,  but  the  consistent  ' 
exercised  members  are  to  be  accused  of  detraction,  when  they 
declare  their  dissent  from  published  errors,  then  "farewell  to 
the  maintenance  of  any  sound  doctrine  in  the  church  of  Christ." 
This  would  be  an  inlet  to  the  greatest  innovations,  and  in  time 
might  overturn  the  Society.  How  would  it  be  possible  for 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  other  religiously  concerned  mem- 
bers, to  discharge  their  duty  as  watchmen,  if  they  are  forbidden 
to  warn  the  flock  of  surrounding  danger,  arising  from  erroneous 
doctrinal  works?  I^he  most  substantial  Friends  in  this  land, 
nobly  and  firmly  testified  against  the  errors  of  Elias  Hicks, 
both  publicly  and  privately,  even  while  he  travelled  with  cer- 
tificates as  a  niinister,  and  they  were  instrumental  in  guarding 
many  from  imbibing  his  unsound  sentiments. 


32 


Second.  In  a  committee  of  the  Yearly  Meeting  summoning 
a  member  before  it  to  answer  certain  charges  made  by  it,  deal- 
ing with  him  as  an  offender,  and  requiring  him  to  make  con- 
cessions to  them,  and  endeavoring  to  induce  him  to  sign  a 
written  acknowledgment,  drawn  up  by  a  part  of  their  own 
body. 

The  right  to  treat  with  their  members,  and  to  disown  or  to 
accept  acknowledgments  from  them,  for  their  errors,  belongs 
exclusively  to  the  Monthly  Meetings,  under  certain  rules  pre- 
scribed by  the  Discipline.  Even  when  a  Quarterly  Meeting 
appoints  a  committee  to  be  incorporated  with  a  weak  Monthly 
Meeting  for  the  support  of  the  Discipline,  the  members  of  the 
committee,  when  named  in  the  latter  meeting  to  treat  with 
offenders,  do  not  serve  as  a  committee  of  the  Quarterly,  but  of 
the  Monthly  Meeting,  having  no  more  power  than  any  other 
members  of  it.  And  it  is,  we  think,  altogether  incompatible 
with  the  station  which  a  Yearly  Meeting  holds  in  the  Society, 
and  with  universal  practice,  for  that  body,  either  itself  or 
through  its  committees,  to  attempt  to  deal  with  a  member  as 
an  offender.  For  as  it  is  the  highest  body  to  which  an  appeal 
can  be  made  against  the  decisions  of  inferior  meetings,  the  ap- 
plication to  it  for  redress,  must  be  in  vain,  if  it  has  already 
made  itself  a  party  and  prejudged  the  case. 

Third.  In  the  same  committee's  drawing  up  a  charge  against 
a  member,  bringing  it  immediately  before  his  Monthly  Meet- 
ing and  insisting  upon  its  being  recorded  on  the  minutes, 
against  the  urgent  request  of  the  accused  that  it  should  be  pre- 
viously investigated  ;  thereby  assuming  to  itself  functions 
which  rightfully  belong  to  the  overseers  and  to  the  Preparative 
Meeting. 

The  right  of  an  accused  person  to  have  a  charge  against  him 
brought  before  the  overseers  or  the  Preparative  Meeting,  is  of 
essential  importance.  There  he  has  the  liberty  of  attending 
and  of  meeting  the  charge  before  it  is  permanently  recorded,  and 
if  he  should  convince  the  overseers  or  the  meeting  that  it  is 
unfounded,  or  if  it  can  be  settled  without  going  to  the  Monthly 
Meeting,  the  matter  would  end  without  any  record  to  hand  his 
name  down  to  posterity  with  discredit.  Whereas  his  rights  as 
a  member  are  virtually  suspended,  so  long  as  a  charge  against 


him  remains  unsettled  on  the  records  of  the  Monthly  Meeting. 
We  should  regard  such  a  proceeding  in  our  own  Yearly- 
Meeting  as  an  unconstitutional  exercise  of  power,  dangerous 
to  the  peace  and  subversive  of  the  established  order  of  the 
Society. 

Fourth.  In  the  same  committee's  bringing  the  power  and 
authority  of  the  Yearly  Meeting  to  bear  upon  the  Monthly 
Meeting,  by  claiming  the  right  to  join  the  committee  of  the 
latter  in  treating  with  the  Friend  and  refusing  to  him  the  right 
of  opening  and  explaining  what  he  alledged  to  be  the  ground 
on  which  he  had  acted  in  the  discharge  of  an  apprehended 
duty.  The  members  of  the  Yearly  Meeting's  committee  had 
neither  been  incorporated  with  the  Monthly  Meeting  nor  ap- 
pointed  to  deal  with  the  member.  Their  presenting  themselves 
in  this  anomalous  manner,  seemed  to  show  a  determination  to 
carry  a  purpose  respecting  the  Friend,  without  regard  to  the 
usages  and  order  of  the  Society  or  the  rights  of  the  Meeting. 
Where  a  member's  character  and  privileges  are  at  stake,  the 
spirit  and  uniform  practice  of  our  Discipline  require  the  greatest 
liberality  to  be  shown  in  allowing  him  time  and  any  arguments 
or  explanations  he  thinks  necessary  to  his  defence.  Were  he 
denied  the  opportunity  of  producing  evidence  to  clear  himself, 
such  denial  would  quash  the  proceedings  against  him,  in  an 
appeal  before  an  impartial  tribunal,  for  the  great  object  in  the 
administration  of  Church  Discipline  is,  not  to  criminate  but  to 
convince  and  reclaim  those  who  have  erred ;  and  if  that  cannot 
be  done,  to  leave  no  ground  for  charging  the  church  with 
harshness  or  injustice. 

Fifth.  In  the  same  committee's  objecting  at  a  subsequent 
Monthly  Meeting  to  the  reception  and  adoption  of  a  report 
signed  by  seven  of  the  committee  who  had  investigated  the 
case  and  declared  that  the  charges  had  not  been  sustained, 
while  they  advised  the  reading  of  a  report  of  an  opposite  char- 
acter signed  by  two  of  the  Monthly  Meeting's  committee, 
although  it  was  strongly  objected  to  in  the  meeting. 

Such  a  proceeding  in  treating  with  offenders  is,  we  think, 
contrary  to  any  practice  in  the  Society  that  we  have  ever  been 
acquainted  with  ;  the  principle  governing  in  such  cases,  being, 
that  of  leaning  to  the  side  of  mercy  and  forbearance. 


34 


Sixth,  In  the  attempt  made,  first,  by  the  Gluarterly  Meeting's 
committee  and  afterwards  by  the  (Quarterly  Meeting  itself,  to 
render  null  and  void  the  minute  of  South  Kingston  Monthly 
Meeting  which  accepted  the  report  in  the  case  of  the  Friend  al- 
hided  to,  dismissed  the  charge  against  him  and  restored  him  to 
all  his  rights  as  a  member  and  minister  ;  and  in  afterwards 
taking  up  his  case  by  another  Monthly  Meeting  on  the  same 
charge  and  there  disowning  him  without  even  going  through 
the  regular  course  prescribed  by  the  Discipline. 

It  is  a  great  maxim  of  law  and  justice,  that  where  a  man  has 
been  tried  and  acquitted  he  cannot  be  again  tried  for  the  same 
offence.  When,  therefore,  Rhode  Island  (Quarterly  Meeting  set 
aside  the  minute  in  the  case  alluded  to,  and  directed  a  new  trial, 
it  violated  what  must  ever  be  held  to  be  a  fundamental  principle 
in  the  administration  of  justice.  The  only  reasons  assigned  for 
this  decision,  were  certain  appointments  made  in  the  Monthly 
Meeting,  which  it  was  clearly  within  the  power  of  that  meeting 
to  make,  which  appointments  had  been  recognized  as  valid  by 
the  Yearly  and  (Quarterly  Meeting's  committees,  and  for  which 
the  individual  was  in  no  way  responsible. 

South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  being  laid  down,  and  its 
members  joined  to  Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting,  contrary  to 
the  course  prescribed  by  the  Discipline  of  New  England 
Yearly  Meeting  ;  the  latter  meeting,  five  months  after  the  case 
had  been  closed,  and  the  member  fully  acquitted  by  his  own 
Monthly  Meeting,  and  thereby,  according  to  the  admission  of 
both  parties,  ^'restored  to  membership,"  took  his  case  upon  its 
minutes,  called  for  a  report  from  the  committee  originally  ap- 
pointed in  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting,  and  at  the  next 
meeting  received  a  report  signed  by  two  of  that  committee, 
similar  in  all  respects  to  that  made  five  months  before  to  South 
Kingston  Monthly  Meeting  by  the  same  two  members  of  the 
committee  of  nine,  and  which  was  rejected  by  it ;  and  in  a 
summary  manner  immediately  disowned  the  individual  without 
his  having  met  the  committee  again,  or  the  whole  committee 
having  been  together. 

The  Society  of  Friends  has  always  guarded  with  scrupulous 
care,  the  rights  of  its  members.  It  has  carefully  avoided  seek- 
ing to  make  a  man  an  offender ;  and  even  when  a  Friend  has 


$6 


directly  violated  the  Discipline,  if  he  has  not  been  treated  with 
and  disowned  in  strict  conformity  with  its  provisions  and  order, 
he  is,  where  justice  is  done  to  him,  reinstated  on  his  appeal. 
It  is  an  acknowledged  principle  among  Friends,  that  it  is  better 
an  offender  should  escape  disownment,  than  that  his  rights, 
guaranteed  by  the  Discipline,  should  be  disregarded.  For  if 
meetings  and  committees  do  not  keep  to  the  Discipline  them- 
selves, under  the  direction  of  the  Head  of  the  Church,  on  what 
right  ground  can  an  individual  be  disowned  for  his  error  ?  We 
therefore  regard  the  whole  proceeding  as  at  variance  with  the  ^ 
organization  and  discipline  of  the  Society. 

Seventh.  In  disregarding  the  provisions  of  the  Discipline 
of  New  England  Yearly  Meeting,  in  the  manner  of  laying 
down  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting,  by  Rhode  Island 
(Quarter,  and  attaching  its  members  to  Greenwich  Monthly 
Meeting. 

That  Discipline  prescribes  the  following  course  to  be  pursued 
in  such  a  case ;  "  When  a  (Quarterly  Meeting  'hath  come  to  a 
judgment  respecting  any  difference,  relative  to  any  Monthly 
Meeting  belonging  to  them,  and  notified  the  same  in  writing 
to  such  Monthly  Meeting,  the  said  Monthly  Meeting  ought  to 
submit  to  the  judgment  of  the  Quarterly  Meeting  ;  but  if  such 
Monthly  Meeting  shall  not  be  satisfied  therewith,  then  the 
Monthly  Meeting  may  appeal  to  the  Yearly  Meeting,  against 
the  judgment  and  determination  of  the  (Quarterly  Meeting. 

"And  if  a  Monthly  Meeting  shall  refuse  to  take  the  advice 
and  submit  to  the  judgment  of  the  (Quarterly  Meeting  and  not- 
withstanding will  not  appeal  against  the  determination  of  the 
said  meeting,  to  the  Yearly  Meeting ;  in  such  case^  the  Quar- 
terly Meeting  shall  be  at  liberty  either  to  dissolve  such  Monthly 
Meeting,  or  bring  the  affair  before  the  next  or  succeeding 
Yearly  Meeting. 

"  And  in  case  a  Quarterly  Meeting  shall  dissolve  a  Monthly 
Meeting,  the  dissolved  Monthly  Meeting,  or  any  part  thereof, 
in  the  name  of  the  said  meeting,  shall  be  at  liberty  to  appeal 
to  the  next  or  succeeding  Yearly  Meeting,  against  such  disso- 
lution ;  but  if  the  dissolved  Monthly  Meeting,  or  a  part  thereof 
in  its  behalf,  shall  not  appeal  to  the  Yearly  Meeting,  the 
Quarterly  Meeting  shall  join  the  members  of  the  said  late 


36 


Monthly  Meeting,  to  such  other  Monthly  Meeting  as  they  may 
think  most  convenient ;  and  until  such  time,  shall  take  care 
that  no  inconvenience  doth  thereby  ensue  to  the  members  of 
such  dissolved  meeting,  respecting  any  branch  of  our  Disci- 
pline."   Rules  of  Discipline,  he,  1826,  pp.  118,  119. 

This,  to  us,  appears  clear  and  explicit,  rendering  it  necessary 
for  the  Quarterly  Meeting,  first  to  come  to  a  judgment  in  rela- 
tion to  the  difficulty  existing  in  the  Monthly  Meeting,  proposed 
to  be  laid  down,  and  to  communicate  that  judgment  to  it  in 
writing  ;  and  then  to  ascertain  whether  the  meeting,  or  any  por- 
tion of  its  members,  intend  to  appeal  from  that  judgment,  prior 
to  proceeding  to  dissolve  that  meeting  and  to  attach  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Monthly  Meeting  to  another.  Now  unless  we  ad- 
mit the  assumption  that  the  advice  of  a  committee,  or  of  a 
small  part  of  a  committee,  is  equivalent  to  the  recorded  judg- 
ment of  the  meeting  which  appoints  it,  (an  assumption  which 
would  totally  change  the  long  established  practice  of  the  Soci- 
ety,) we  think  ifclear  that  this  portion  of  Discipline  was  disre- 
garded in  the  dissolution  of  South  Kingston  Monthly  Meeting 
and  the  disposal  of  its  members ;  for  that  meeting  had  received 
no  written  judgment  from  the  (Quarterly  Meeting  in  the  case, 
until  it  received  the  minute  by  w^hich  it  was  declared  to  be  dis- 
solved ;  and  at  the  same  time,  before  the  (Quarterly  Meeting 
^  could  have  known  whether  the  Monthly  Meeting,  or  any 
part  of  the  members,  would  appeal  from  that  judgment,  they 
were  joined  to  Greenwich  Monthly  Meeting  ;  and  the  latter 
meeting  forthwith  proceeded  to  exercise  jurisdiction  over  them, 
in  direct  violation  of  their  rights,  as  guaranteed  by  the  Disci- 
pline. 

Eighth.  In  the  manner  in  which  the  members  of  the  Quar- 
terly Meeting's  committee  interfered  to  produce  a  separation  in 
Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting. 

The  accounts  given  by  both  parties  of  the  Monthly  Meeting 
of  Swanzey,  at  which  the  separation  took  place,  agree  in 
stating,  that  although  the  clerk  of  the  meeting  (whom  both 
acknowledge  to  have  been  in  that  station,  when  the  meeting 
adjourned  the  month  before)  had  taken  his  seat  at  the  table, 
the  whole  transaction  of  proposing  a  new  clerk  by  one  who 
was  not  a  member  of  the  meeting,  his  being  united  with  by  a 


37 


part  of  the  members  and  by  others  who  were  not  members, 
and  the  Friend  proposed  proceeding  to  act  as  clerk,  was  con- 
summated before  any  minute  opening  the  meeting  had  been 
made,  or  any  minute  from  the  (Quarterly  Meeting  read.  Now 
we  think  it  undeniable,  that  no  portion  of  the  members  of  a 
Monthly  Meeting,  even  supposing  them  to  be  a  greater  number, 
which  in  this  instance  does  not  appear  to  have  been  the  case, 
could  be  justified  in  thus  acting  ;  but  that  they  must  by  such 
an  act,  subject  themselves  to  all  the  consequences  of  separating 
from  their  Monthly  Meeting  and  setting  up  a  meeting  unautho- 
rized by  the  Discipline.  And  those  members  who  thus  separa- 
ted from  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting,  cannot  plead  the  authority 
of  the  (Quarterly  Meeting  for  the  course  they  pursued,  inasmuch 
as  those  who  proposed  it  and  assisted  therein,  had  exhibited  no 
minute  from  that  meeting,  directing  the  Monthly  Meeting  to 
be  reorganized,  and  clothing  them  with  power  to  act  in  the 
case.  To  us,  therefore,  it  appears  clear,  that  the  meeting 
which,  with  its  old  clerk  at  the  table  proceeded  in  the  trans- 
action of  its  business  after  the  others  had  adjourned,  in  no  way 
lost  its  standing  as  Swanzey  Monthly  Meeting,  and  that  the 
others  separated  from  it  ;  and  that  those  who  in  Rhode  Island 
(Quarterly  Meeting,  received  the  report  from  the  latter,  and 
rejected  that  from  the  former,  identified  themselves  with  the 
separate  meeting. 

The  Discipline  points  out  the  course  to  be  pursued  where  a 
Monthly  Meeting  is  refractory  and  unwilling  to  take  the  advice 
of  its  superior  meeting,  regularly  conveyed  to  it,  but  it  no 
where  clothes  a  (Quarterly  Meeting  with  the  power  to  select 
clerks  and  overseers  for  its  subordinate  meetings,  and  to  oblige 
these  meetings  to  accept  and  appoint  them. 

The  acts  to  which  we  have  now  referred,  we  believe  to  be 
the  most  prominent  among  the  causes  that  produced  the  separa- 
tion in  New  England  Yearly  Meeting  in  1845.  The  manner 
in  which  that  separation  was  effected,  is,  we  presume,  known 
by  most,  if  not  all  our  members.  Many  of  those  who  now 
constitute  the  smaller  body  in  New  England,  thought  that  the 
Yearly  Meeting  was  not  authorized  suddenly  to  suspend  the 
important  rule  of  Discipline  which  requires  the  representatives 
to  meet  at  the  conclusion  of  the  first  sitting  and  agree  upon  a 


38 


clerk  for  the  year,  and  report  the  same  to  the  adjournment. 
Four  of  the  representatives  thus  thinking,  together  with  those 
appointed  by  one  of  the  bodies  claiming  to  be  Rhode  Island 
(Quarterly  Meeting,  met  and  agreed  upon  Friends  to  be  nomi- 
nated for  clerk  and  assistant.  Upon  these  names  being  pro- 
posed in  the  afternoon  sitting,  and  being  united  with  by  some 
and  disapproved  by  more,  the  separation  which  now  exists, 
immediately  followed. 

Although  the  manner  in  which  this  separation  was  effected 
was  not  such  as,  we  think,  affords  a  precedent  safe  to  be  fol- 
lowed in  the  organization  of  a  Yearly  Meeting,  yet  inasmuch 
as  those  Friends  who  compose  the  smaller  body  appear  to  have 
acted  from  a  sincere  desire  to  maintain  the  doctrines  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  Society,  and  the  rights  secured  by  it  to  all  its 
members ;  and  had  been  subjected  to  proceedings  oppressive  in 
their  character,  and  in  violation  of  the  acknowledged  principles 
of  our  church  government,  w^e  believe  that  they  continue  to  be 
entitled  to  the  rights  of  membership,  and  to  such  acknowledg- 
ment by  their  brethren  as  may  be  necessary  for  securing  the 
enjoyment  of  those  rights. 

The  obstruction  which  exists  in  our  Yearly  Meeting,  to  the 
holding  of  a  correspondence  with  that  body  in  New  England 
which  has  authorized  or  sustained  the  proceedings  upon  which 
we  have  animadverted,  does  not  arise  from  any  feelings  of  hos- 
tility to  them,  nor  from  partiality  to  any  man,  but  from  a  con- 
scientious belief  that  whatever  may  have  been  the  motive,  their 
acts  have  gone  to  condemn  many  who  have  been  standing  for 
the  ancient  faith  of  Friends  and  against  the  introduction  of 
error ;  that,  in  so  doing,  wrong  opinions  have  received  support, 
and  the  discipline  and  rights  of  members  have  been  violated  ; 
and  that  it  was  the  course  pursued  by  them  in  these  trans- 
actions which  led  to  the  separation.  Until,  therefore,  those 
proceedings  shall  be  rectified  or  annulled,  we  see  not  how  unity 
is  to  be  restored. 

We  have  endeavored  to  take  an  impartial  view  of  the  pro- 
ceedings set  forth  in  the  printed  documents,  and  to  express  a 
candid  opinion  respecting  them,  and  inasmuch  as  it  is  needful 
that  the  accountability  of  members  to  their  respective  meetings 
and  the  subordination  of  inferior  to  superior  meetings  should  be 


39 


maintained  according  to  the  Discipline,  and  inasmuch  as  divi- 
sions and  subdivisions  must  always  be  attended  by  conse- 
quences more  or  less  destructive  of  the  peace  and  welfare  of 
meetings  and  families  ;  and  of  the  strength  and  influence  of  the 
Society  in  supporting  its  testimonies,  it  is  our  sincere  and  fer- 
vent desire  that  all  parties,  under  a  deep  sense  of  the  greatness 
of  the  cause  and  the  excellence  of  the  church  government 
which  our  Society  has  been  intrusted  with,  and  called  to  sup- 
port, may,  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  examine  the  respective 
grounds  they  have  taken  ;  and  that  where  any  infraction  of  pri-' 
vate  rights  or  of  the  Discipline,  has  been  committed,  they  may 
be  willing,  under  the  constraining  power  of  Truth,  to  acknowl- 
edge and  do  it  away.  We  all  profess  to  act  under  the  govern- 
ment of  the  same  blessed  Head  of  the  Church  who  laid  down 
his  life  for  our  sakes,  and  taught  us  that  we  should  lay  down 
our  lives  for  one  another ;  and  we  believe  that  if  all  classes 
stand  open  to  the  softening  influences  of  the  love  of  God, 
through  his  mercy  and  goodness,  every  thing  that  has  divided 
and  alienated  from  each  other  may  be  entirely  removed,  and  a 
re-establishment  on  the  right  foundation  witnessed  in  that  faith 
and  love  and  unity  which  in  former  years  bound  together  the 
members,  and  the  difl'erent  Yearly  Meetings  of  our  Society. 

It  is  important  that  such  a  reunion  should  be  sought  after  by 
the  members  of  the  two  bodies  in  New  England,  not  only  for 
their  own  sakes,  but  for  the  promotion  of  the  peace  and  har- 
mony of  the  Society  every  where. 

We  fear  that  a  serious  lapse  has  taken  place  in  our  Society, 
from  a  humble  and  steadfast  reliance  upon  the  inward  and  im- 
mediate leadings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that  the  wisdom  and 
contrivance  of  man  have  sorrowfully  taken  its  place  in  many  ; 
so  that  through  the  influence  of  the  spirit  and  love  of  the 
world,  they  have  despised  the  simplicity  of  the  cross,  and  thus 
some  of  our  doctrines  and  testimonies  have  been  brought  into 
disrepute.  All  the  efl'orts  of  man,  without  the  immediate 
power  and  wisdom  of  Christ,  will  prove  altogether  ineflfectual 
to  guide  the  church  and  to  preserve  it  from  apostacy,  or  to  re- 
store the  unity  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  love  and  fellowship  which 
subsists  among  his  humble  followers.  It  is  only  as  the  mem- 
bers are  brought  back  to  an  inward  abiding  in  Christ,  listening 


40 


to  and  obeying  his  voice  in  their  own  hearts,  that  we  shall  be 
enabled  to  rise  ^s  a  Society,  shake  ourselves  from  the  dust  of 
the  earth  and  put  on  the  beautiful  garments  of  salvation  and 
strength.  Then  would  there  be  a  solid  ground  for  hope,  that 
He  would  still  give  gifts  to  sons  and  daughters,  who,  maintain- 
ing the  watch  and  relying  upon  him  for  direction,  would  be 
qualified  to  occupy  them  under  the  anointing  that  is  received 
from  him,  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  for^the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ  and  the  spread- 
ing of  his  cause  and  kingdom  in  the  earth.  The  glory  which 
has  greatly  departed  from  us  would  be  mercifully  restored,  and 
the  love  and  life  which  Circulates  through  the  members  of  the 
mystical  church  would  eminently  prevail,  making  us  one 
another's  joy  and  helpers  in  the  Lord. 


At  our  Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends  for  New  England,  held  on  RJiode 
Island,  hy  adjournments,  from  the  \^th  of  the  6th  month  to  the  \5th 
of  the  same,  inclusive,  1849. 

The  committee  to  whom  was  referred,  for  further  consideration,  the 
Document  prepared  by  the  Meeting  for  Sufferings  of  Philadelphia 
Yearly  Meeting,  in  relation  to  the  Facts  and  Causes  of  the  Division 
which  has  taken  place  within  our  limits,  and  which  was  adopted  by  a 
minute  of  that  Yearly  Meeting,  and  directed  to  be  laid  before  us  for 
our  solid  consideration ; — both  of  which  were  received  and  read  at 
our  first  sitting,  reported  at  this  time.  And  upon  solid  deliberation, 
it  appears  to  us  that  our  Friends  of  that  Yearly  Meeting  have  been 
enabled  to  enter  into  an  impartial  examin'ation  of  the  momentous  sub- 
ject, to  obtain  a  correct  understanding  of  the  transactions  narrated, 
and  favored  to  come  to  a  right  conclusion  respecting  the  important 
Principles  which  are  involved  therein. 

The  subject  having  been  thus  weightily  revived  and  left  with  us 
for  our  serious  consideration ;  we  have  been  afi-esh  led  into  a  careful 
re-examination  of  the  part  which  we  have  felt  called  upon  to  act ; — 
and  while  we  are  sensible  of  much  weakness,  we  can  with  reverence 


41 


and  thankfulness  acknowledge  the  continued  evidence  of  Divine 
regard.  And,  as  we  humbly  trust,  under  the  cementing  influence  of 
Heavenly  Love,  our  minds  have  been  brought  into  near  unity  with  the 
concern  expressed  by  our  dear  Friends  of  Philadelphia  Yearly  Meet- 
ing ; — That  all  those  who  have  occasioned  uneasiness,  or  been  instru- 
mental in  bringing  our  Religious  Society  into  the  dangers  and  difli- 
culties  in  which  it  has  been  mournfully  involved,  by  the  transactions 
alluded  to  in  their  Report,  as  having  "  gone  to  condemn  many  who 
have  been  standing  for  the  Ancient  Faith  of  Friends,"  may  be  brought 
to  see  their  error,  and  to  a  right  sense  of  the  support  which  we  con- 
tinue to  believe  has  been  and  still  is  given  to  unsound  Doctrines  and 
wrong  practices  in  violation  of  the  Discipline — to  the  subversion  of 
the  peace  and  order  of  our  Religious  Society,  and  of  the  acknowledged 
rights  of  its  members.  And  as  in  the  course  of  the  re-examination 
which  we  have  been  led  into  respecting  the  manner  of  our  proceeding, 
we  have  not  seen  cause  either  to  forsake  the  ground,  or  to  retrace  the 
steps  which  we  have  taken  ;  neither  have  we  been  able  to  see  in  what 
other  way  we  could  have  sustained  the  Yearly  Meeting  in  conformity 
with  the  Discipline,  and  upon  its  original  foundation.  And  we  believe 
it  to  be  right  for  us,  and  our  duty  at  this  time,  again  to  express  the 
earnest  and  sincere  desire  which  we  continue  deeply  to  feel,  that  all 
who  have  erred  from  the  Faith,  and  given  their  support  to  the  unsound 
Doctrines  which  we  have  been  engaged  to  testify  against,  or  who  have 
been  concerned  in  the  oppressive  measures  which  resulted  in  their 
separation  from  us,  may  be  so  humbled  under  the  Divine  Hand,  as  to 
experience,  individually,  unfeigned  repentance  unto  a  condemnation 
of  their  errors,  and  a  full  acknowledgment  of  the  Truth ;  and  so  come 
to  witness  an  establishment  upon  the  sure  Foundation,  and  a  right 
preparation  of  heart  to  unite  with  us  in  religious  fellowship  and  com- 
munion. Having  also  been  engaged  at  this  time  in  the  consideration 
of  "  An  Appeal"  for  the  Ancient  Doctrines  of  our  Religious  Society, 
issued  by  the  same  Yearly  Meeting  in  the  year  1847,  which  was 
unanimously  approved  and  adopted  by  this  Meeting  ;  believing  it  to 
have  had  its  origin  in  the  Truth,  and  under  a  similar  concern  for  the 
faithful  maintenance  of  our  Principles,  to  that  which  has  repeatedly 
led  us,  both  as  individuals  and  as  a  body,  to  bear  testimony  against 
the  unsound  sentiments  and  Doctrines  promulgated  by  one  of  the 
authors  alluded  to  in  the  Appeal ;  and  our  Meeting  for  Sufferings 
having  heretofore  recommended  it  to  the  serious  perusal  of  all  our 
members,  we  unite  therewith;  and  we  especially  recommend* it  to  the 
careful  perusal  of  all  who  have  been  drawn  aside  by  the  dissemination 
of  those  views ;  earnestly  desiring  that  the  forcible  manner  in  which 
they  have  been  fully  refuted,  may  have  the  effect  to  restore  such 


42 


to  that  precious  unity  which  once  characterized  us,  and  that  they 
may  be  prepared,  as  the  heart  of  one  man,  for  a  full  acknowledgment 
and  faithful  support  of  the  principles  set  forth  in  that  Appeal," 
firmly  believing  them  to  be  in  strict  accordance  with  "the  Truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus,  and  as  it  has  always  been  held  by  our  Religious  So- 
ciety." And  it  is  the  conclusion  of  this  meeting  to  refer  the  Docu- 
ment, with  the  minute  received  from  Philadelphia  Yearly  Meeting,  to 
the  Meeting  for  Sufferings,  to  be  published  for  the  information  of  our 
members,  at  such  time  and  in  such  manner  as  best  Wisdom  may  direct, 
and  they  are  authorized  to  append  thereto  a  copy  of  this  minute. 

Extracted  from  the  Minutes. 

THOMAS  B.  GOULD, 

Clerk  to  the  Meeting  this  year. 


i 


PHOTOMOUNT 
PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Manu/acturtJ 
6AYLOR0  BROS.  Inc. 
Syr«c««e,  N.  Y. 

Stockton,  Calil. 


